February Afternoon


five starlings

charcoal on quartz snow

breaking into rainbows in the pale sun


fireweed honey

on my parched tongue

caressing it with the aftertaste of love


cigarette smoke

the bluegrey of broken hearts

swirling in a broken halo round my head


stilly notes

pearls on a silken string

singing the tears of a dead man’s dream


cold drape

of an unseen god

falling into the mouth of early evening


afternoon dies

in the ravening of his hunger

disappearing into the myth of another day



RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (NY Times, 2/2017), easing the edges: a collection of everyday miracles, (Patrick Heath Public Library of Boerne, 11/2021) The Connecticut Shakespeare Festival Anthology (River Bend Bookshop Press12/2021), in print: 2River, Event, Gargoyle Magazine,   Meat For Tea: The Valley Review, the minnesota review, Night Picnic Journal, Plainsongs, Prairie Schooner, Southword, The Frogmore Papers, The Ogham Stone, York Literary Review among many others and appears in numerous online literary journals.