In winter, we get inside each other. The erotics of the dark,...

In winter, we get inside each other. The erotics of the dark, cold
season differ from that of summer—not the flirty, sundressed frolic, not
sultry August sweat above the lip, not tan lines or sand in shoes or
voluptuous tulips. It’s a different sort of smolder now. Quilted,
clutching, we wolve for one another, ice on the puddles and orange glow
from windows against deepest evening blue. In summer: lust and laze,
days are loose and lasting. In winter: time tightens, night’s wide open,
the hunger says right now.

Part Three of my series on the Winter Solstice for the Paris Review.

[Paul Cezanne, Leda and the Swan, c. 1882]