Winter solstice
(PC: The Dews Mist 2018, Catherine Hyde) Winter. True winter is here. Each day shorter and every night longer than the last, painstakingly longer. A while ago, the air which was, as gentle as a lady's smile and as warm as mother's embrace, is no more. In minutes it has dropped to such low, its glancing caress leaves one, shuddering, with a profound sensation of imprinted memory; bone-chilling like needles stabbing through skin reaching to the very depth of the bones, stabbing and stabbing, without mercy. Cold i.e. colder, with heaviness such, not pre-existing, the fragile human body shivers trying to conserve as much warmth as possible, enduring that chilling sensation, yet, barely. The ears ring continuously inside, with a throb, then another, reminding with each of its beat, the cruel reality wherein living needs to struggle, perhaps selfishly, just to survive, day by day, moment by moment, always. Under the mercy of intermittent gusts, the canines growl in one corner and the