if not winter….

If not winter then will you come to me in summer?

Oh, I forgot, in summer you are at-one-with nature and nowhere to be found.

If not winter then will you come to me in spring?

Oh, my bad again, in spring the birds and geese are calling hunting is all around.

If not winter then will you come to me in the fall?

Oh, second thought, I might be missing myself when golden leaves fall softly to the ground.

It may as well be winter that you come to me when all is cold and still,

We can have hot tea and hold on and give each other chill thrills.

Inspired by Sappho fragment #22 ‘if not, winter” (drawn from the book If Not, Winter, Fragments of Sappho, trans. Anne Carson, Knopf, 2002.) 

Dedicated to mature lovers everywhere