![Image](http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/media/poems_png/f/8385_org_HanDong_WinterSo.png)
WINTER SOLSTICE
someone burns paper money in the street
it’s the day of the winter solstice
flames light up the trees that line the road
we, the living, turn ourselves in shadows
so as to get closer to the departed dead
in streets, at the foot of walls, in the courtyard of houses where our
dear ones once lived
loss and remorse bring home to us the existence
of another world
as dark as the earth
as agile and warm as flames
Assuming the doom-mongers can't translate Mayan and the world doesn't end at 11.11 this morning, greeting to all on the solstice which happens at 11.12.