Seasons
There’s the suddenness of winter,
Where I feel lost within the snow.
It keeps falling endlessly
Like the time I’ve been wanting to stop.
You can hear our blades cutting into the ice,
similar to the feeling of nostalgia,
That slices my heart like a knife.
The birds are singing a sweet new melody
of spring,
And the flowers bloom.
Then sadness wanders,
And yes there are plenty of colors,
But I paint the picture in shades of blue.
The school bells no longer ring into the air.
All that remains is a subtle realization
Of what was supposed to be.
The sweat beads form from the ache of summer heat,
And unspoken words stream from my cheeks.
You’re everywhere but nowhere,
in nature’s color; green.
The seasons keep coming,
Leading to fading memories;
So fragile like the autumn leaves.
And once again it’s October,
The incoming of unannounced somber.
And I feel my hold blowing,
Blowing away with the leaves.
“Seasons” was selected by Hai-Dang Phan as a finalist in the Distinguished Voices Poetry Contest.
Caleigh Pfalzer is a SUNY Cortland alumni that graduated in May ’24, majoring in both anthropology and criminology. She writes in her free time as it helps her to explore the complexity of her emotions and better explain how she feels through concepts in her work. Her passion for writing began during her freshman year of high school, when her childhood friend, Trevor, tragically passed away. Struggling to find any media or work that captured the feeling of losing a friend at such a young age, Caleigh began writing to sort through the feelings of denial and grief. One day, she aims to be less shy about her work and to put it out there publicly. She hopes that her work can make someone else feel like they are not alone in the way that they feel, especially if they share a similar experience.