January

"January is on a blackboard covered 

almost entirely in white by a soft crayon 

of schoolhouse chalk used on its side

 in bold powerful fingers. 

The board had been scrubbed clean,

 to start with, and uncovered lines and spaces 

which form the crude pattern stand out glistening, 

three-dimensional, and move toward you,

 gathering you in.

The still month."

Gladys Hasty Carroll