Cloaked in the lingering storm clouds of summer rain
She softly treads above the mists of the city’s gaslights -
Her feet are sore from running in the eyes of hurricanes
And her muscles tremble from being starved of life

The streets are abandoned and filled with echoes;
Windows are boarded up with planks of wood
And only the wind shouts the tale of misfortune
Of a plague that has rendered bustling apartments still

Rats nest in the cracks and debris of the solemn city
And live off of the rotten and the tainted water;
Infested by wrecks and tragedies, she moves on
Remembering - - -

How the children used to run with so much joy
While old couples would tend to their gardens
And the occasional street musician played for mere change
(Why did she never hear the screams of the dying?)

Dying twice, without any resurrection, her hands touch
The side of Apartment #22, though her senses are gone
She finds even the most minute memories consolable:
If she were alive she could (would) weep in remorse

Then in the fog, she sees life peering through;
An elderly man sitting on the stoop -
His clothes badly patched, his eyes full of waiting -
Casting fortune beside him for her to return

I - Dawn

Empty quietude - - (elegant flowers
Sweep in renewal as the fire-river
Bleeds from the glaciers) cold dewdrop showers
Cleanse the awakening - - purple flames shiver

II - Afternoon

Mountain-breath exhales from the peaks and quiver
Beneath the valleys - - Flames burst in their rite!
(Eternity burns in purple slivers) - -
Sun loathes such a beauty! Embodied height!

III - Moonstruck

Sleepy flowers - - milking the purple night
Of blackness and starlight of the calm-tude
(A faint fire glows, ember of sunlight
Emerges from the rest of Moon’s interlude )

IV - Epilogue

Dawn is drunk, and the full moon is waned - -
Amongst darkness a purple flame remained

Sky-threads unravel
In wisps of midnight blue stars;
Two rivers entwine

I.

The darkness is dampened with ice,
A white infinitum calling its prayer –
Humble and hushed –
Across the frosty, undisturbed Earth


II.

1.

In the morning-brilliancy,
A soft hum presides over the blue-scape
(Softer is the falling snow
Tiptoeing from above)

Bright-bathed light illuminates
The being of those eyes
Who gaze at such purity and Earthly rapture
As to be blinded by all else

2.

Amidst the fallen dust two gazers stand,
Hot cocoa steaming from their hands –
One shivers slightly under amore’s weight,
The other smiles and wraps each other in their scarf

(Alone in the vastness,
Entangled by snowflaked eyelids and warmth,
Two gazers close their eyes
And lose themselves in eternity)

3.

The old widow in her shawl
Awaits to feed seed to the sparrows
“How do you survive such cold?” she asks
Her age quavering as the brisk air
“Time creeps behind me, hours are blurring into days.”
The sparrows peck at the seed-feast
Knowing that this is the balance she sought

4.

The laughter of the children toll
Breaking the trapped silence of winter’s morn
Sleighs are sled and snowball fights ensue

But the smallest child sat and watched,
Building a castle of snow
That would soar into the winter sky

(And it did!)



III.

Icicles drip in solemn pitter-patter
While the moon breathes its light on them
How precious this melting phase
Sweeping the season in remembrance

When the sky lays down to rest,
Blushing gold and fuchsia
Underneath its brow, a crest
Of sinking clouds a-glow in fire

The coldest night comes, pale,
A drone of silence against a milky orb –
The solemn crunch of snow follows
Lonely walkers on their path

The breath of heaven, soft, escapes
From some unknown dwelling place
But between you and I the many shapes
Of blue wraps us within its trace

She
Blossoms
Before me,
The tender sprig
With youthful gazes;
Eyes of a shimmering
Sea draped with sunlight and moon –
Now she emerges, curved and breasted,
This child who once skipped rocks across the sky
Her eyes are steady (but they still twinkle)
Her hair is pulled back (but still untamed)
Her tired hands and feet travel swiftly
Alone along the pathways
As she is led by will;
Blue footprints follow
Behind her–
She is a
Woman
Bloom’d

I

Shining silver trees -
Veins of the Summer moonlight
Become our pathways

II

Our feet are polished
With the dew of blue grass stains
While the stars open

III

Our bodies lighten
In the radiance of fireflies,
Sky held in our lips

IV

Silver ecstasy!
Fountains of stars, trees, and limbs -
Liquid moon stains us