Solstice I and Solstice II

As winter cycles back towards summer, nature imposes its own rituals

Erica Vanstone has been published in Philadelphia Magazine, Chill Subs' Write or Die Magazine, Heritage Local Magazine, as well as in Black Bough Poetry's "2023 Winter Anthology," Open Shutter Press' "Flora/Fauna.” Her most recent work, “When we weren’t broken,” is featured in Intangible Press’ October 2024 issue, “Kintsugi.” Erica is represented by Belcastro Agency and lives in Philadelphia, PA with her son, two dogs, and overly opinionated cat.

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slumbering in the deciduous, with sweetness of mottled pistils falling to cement;
its petals pitched and wet across the diagonal of a sun-combed tundra.
cubicles of tart catalpa spiked over the hill in panes of frozen glass
in window panes of glass against the showering sky,
against obsidian,
against the piles of cold cinnamon and conch shells.

in months, its ripened combs of brittle hair a solstice fragrance;
its prickly pear releases pollen, dusted across the canal’s tight surface.
each pearl of cresting in the grass,
each verdant catalpa and chokecherry,
each lavender in envy,
flowering in the deciduous, its sweetness falling.

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