In the deeps of
winter when the nights
are long and the rime
is thick upon

the windows, the
Grandmothers will meet
to tell the tales, the
tales to summon

the spring. The first is the
tale of Frost and Petal, one
a maid of ice and blue, one a

maid of rain and sun. For
season upon season, they 
knew not of one another. Then

the ice stayed too 
long and the rain came
too soon, and there in
in a dawn of

gold and song they
met. They loved at once,
for such strangeness and
beauty they had

never before beheld. 
The sun ascended. The cold
retreated. They touched — but once. Now

Frost gathers the bright sun  
in her ice, and Petal’s first 
blooms bow their heads to kiss the snow.

[Written by Rebecca Buchanan. “Frost and Petal” will appear in the author’s forthcoming collection Grandmother Granddaughter Wolf, and Other Poems Fae, Fearful, and Fantastic.]