After Christmas

After Christmas
by Cheryl Grey Bostrom

Ache,
your velocity
rises with the drop
in my heart’s barometer.
No windbreaks here, you grow
to a howl in my mown
inner fields—low pressure zones,
short of breath because
those I love have
flown home again,
crossed state lines, and
my arms are empty.

Ache,
you swirl memory through
this hollowed home like snow,
proffer wintry options to
busy me in this
lonely weather.
You tempt me to numb you until
time can ice their visit,
dessicate our togetherness.

Blow past me, will you?
You and those evasions?
I’ll wait.
For Love will breathe
his holy Zephyr,
inflate the void,
resuscitate me with
positive pressure,
indwelling, warm,
as only He can do.

Pacific Northwest naturalist, photographer, and award-winning author Cheryl Grey Bostrom lives with her veterinarian husband and two irrepressible Gordon Setters in rural Washington State. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the American Scientific Affiliation’s God and Nature Magazine, for which she’s a regular photo essayist. A member of the Redbud Writers Guild, she has also authored two non-fiction books. Her debut novel Sugar Birds launches August 3, 2021. Website: www.cherylbostrom.com. Instagram: @watchingnatureseeinglife. Twitter: @cheryl_bostrom. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cgbostrom/.