Editor’s Note: For you, and only you!

A month of bitter wind and dealer’s choice.
The arctic shells out last ditch efforts to cool the body,
which sits in the sauna of human consumption and corruption.
The lover plays a similar gambit, burning their hand to warm another’s.  

It’s that time of the year when the cold of lonesome and heat of the hearth collaborate. 
Holding you close, whispering of the dangers outside.
All the things that can go wrong in the dark, away from your bed. 

They do not lie, but they do not tell the whole truth.
The covers, or embrace of another, shelter from the unknown.
What twisted sights might lurk beyond those doors, under moon?
In the woods, alleyways, or the embrace of a friend?
The kind words of a stranger, or kiss of the lips?
I ask, what horrors might hide in the solemn hours of an honest day’s work?
Better yet, those hiding from one? 

It can be hard to go out into the dark. But I assure you,
the journey into that polar vortex holds treasures not shared
in texts, bed sheets or the embers of fire.
Experiences and memories to be grasped — by nobody else but you.
For you to decide, and craft. All yours, to build or break.

Our fates hang in the balance. Knocks on glass, calling us to make a move.
Put on your gloves, hat and wool socks.
Adorn your winter coat and scarf, and answer the door.
Step into that which is scary, and reveal the path that lie ahead — 

For you, and only you!

Index:

• February Schedule
• Tree of the Month: Eastern Hemlock
  • “Though not considered a valuable timber species, hemlocks play a vital ecological role in forests and wetlands…”
  • “When deciduous trees have not yet leafed out in the spring, hemlocks provide shade, keeping streams cool and slowing snowmelt throughout the watershed..”
• Love Birds (Pt. 2)
  • “New and untraditional ways to attract a mate in time for Valentine’s Day”
• (From the Archives): Poetic Rizz: Writing a Sonnet
• Uncle John’s GPT

If anyone wants to send in some short, clean writing with a clear call to action or motif, or art you’d like to share with attribution, please send to eastrockgazette@gmail.com.