this is the bottom of the year
we have skidded, slid, rolled inexorably downward (through no fault of our own)
until we reached this place
this moment in the dark
and now
(through no merit of our own)
we begin
the
slow
crawling
interminable
climb back up towards summer and daylight and the peak, that moment at which
we
once again
begin the descent toward winter
and the night