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Winter's Business

Bethan Manley

I woke alone

    pleaded with the seasons

      to       slow      down

            winter came anyway

left its business card

on the pillow next to me

 

I taste the cold

before it knocks

                    on my door

spend December knotted

in its arms     chilled

 

I run away from sunsets

            not ready to start again

    hide in the corners

of my town

   under comfort of darkness

 

countdown to spring

   my heartbeats         

        get slower

            as it gets colder

 

the new season arrives dressed

in green    I grow

with the grass    dewy

eyed and waiting for someone

                                      to pick me

Bethan Manley is 24 and studied MA Critical and Creative Writing achieving a Distinction at the University of Gloucestershire. Her poetry has appeared in ‘Postcards from Malthusia,’ ‘Ink, Sweat & Tears’ and ‘Snakeskin.’ Her first poetry pamphlet Goodnight Cariad was published by Wildfire Words in September 2022.

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