Solstice in the Dark

Solstice sunrise

Awake in the dark

          at the moment of solstice

stepping outside

          wrapped in a quilt

into the power of silence

Trumpeter swans

          calling high up

above the cloud cover

          in what I imagine to be

a clarity of stars

Back out at daybreak

          hoping for clearing by nightfall

to witness the Great Conjunction

          of Jupiter and Saturn

although the sunrise will do.