December defaults to fields of frost. Distant lanterns glow in the apocalyptic fog spread over the prairies like puddles of blankets on childhood’s living room floor. I bake sugar cookies for my inner girl, cradle her with clammy hands like a gentle reclamation. When the temperature drops and the nights yawn early, I salt solstice oil in stars, glaze the walls in bonfire hues, sun catchers hooking the hearth fire and casting out homemade auroras across the table wearing rings of kept vows and formative years. December, they call you a slow death, slick street on a starless night, but you are the foundation in my architecture of growth. You made me pick up my pen again.

Prompts used (tags are the poets’ IG handles):

@imandq + ml.mecham + @laur_enough - “when the temperature dropped” @papertearspoetry - “starless” @jessaure.poetry - “puddle of blankets” @elenaspoetry - “December defaults” @kaytpoems - “fields of frost” @imlaurengreen - “baking cookies for my inner child” @tangledflxwers - “an apocalyptic fog hangs over the Dakotas” @libbyjenner.poetry - “cradling my old self” + “glazed with bonfire hues” @m.l.macdonald - “star-salted solstice” @lunaroseferguson - “clammy hands” @cozyinkpress - “gentle reclamation” @alexismromo - “you made me pick up my pen again” @arica_writes + @domarleypoet + @forgotten.dumpling + @imandq + @ml.mecham - “my table wears the rings of cooled clay cups and kept vows” @jasmine.s.higgins - “aurora borealis” @theconstantpoet - “__ & other slow deaths” @angelealowes - “queen of silver linings” @thesoftword - “the architecture of growth” @lorrainefaepoetry - “formative years” @imandq + @ml.mecham + @theincidentalpoet - “lanterns in the fog”