A Child’s Winter

By Jessica Lake

One winter day,

In particular,

I cherish most—

Though this now is far from that.

The carnal Winter,

With lustful intent,

Had stripped bare the woods’ finery,

Leaving them naked and afraid.

His coarse, cold hands

Raked their bare limbs,

Drawing forth lurid moans of trespass.

Snug in youth, jacket, and jeans,

Ensconced by boulders about me,

I lay upon my back, eyes cast upward,

And catalogued the grays of slate sky.

Foolhardy within youth,

I thought to laze there evermore.

____________________

Notes

This really happened.

I was preteen. On the top of the hill in my backyard on Eastwood Rd. It was a windy winter gray day.

I felt so perfect—I thought I might stay that way forever.

There is nature, mankind, and myself. The intro expresses the violence adult world. It does this through sexual assault. The outro contrasts my inward calm as a child.

In the last line the adult me scolds my childish self for stupidity. That I would remain safe. And that I had the power to stop time. And that anything lasts forever.

Not a clue what I chose sexual violence.