The public health announcement
of the impending threat of a virus
was received by the adamantine population
like a reminder to file taxes:
impending, unpleasant, and remote.
The silence was tangible.
But a healthy child died:
then windows closed, and
the air grew still; electricity
gripped nerve ends Continue reading
Chagall's windows at Reims Cathedral
We were there to have our picture taken
to promote the little church’s Christmas program.
My few previous visits have always been at night;
this was at midday, when the sun was streaming
through the saintly scenes in the stained-glass.
This was medieval television: pictures brighter
than paintings that themselves were a step up from
laboriously illustrated and illuminated manuscripts
read aloud by tonsured aesthetes in sack cloth.
Gregorian chant, plainsong echo faintly high overhead Continue reading
Some fires, like winter’s low sun
linger hard and remote:
grip far gravity and tend away
taunting like a doppler scream
past far stars:
blues sparks that fade to black.
We scramble over icy flint
barefoot, seeking Continue reading
