Widow Winter
Unfurls her cloak
And spreads her mantle wide

Widow Winter
Tells all the folk
They’d best go home and hide

For now is the time of darkest dark
When coldness settles in
Faces are seen from within the bark
Be they faerie or forest kin

Widow Winter
Strikes down her staff
And summer days are lost

Widow Winter
Strikes down her staff
All is covered in frost

For every winter there is a mark
That holds the dark within
And Widow Winter is the spark
That sets the snow to begin

[Hayley Arrington is a poet whose writings have appeared in Eternal Haunted Summer, SageWoman magazine, Goddess When She Rules, Inanna’s Ascent, and elsewhere. In 2012, she received her MA in women’s spirituality from ITP. Hayley lives with her family in the greater Los Angeles area.]