2/2/2024 – expired

I wished upon the breaking dawn
For what my heart desired
And found instead that in the light
My luck had long expired

1/31/2024 – at once

Walls press in
Until they find my skin
On all sides
The ceiling gets low
And the floors upward grow
Till I am small
And too large
At once

Bereft of all but that in reach
I want for distant shores
Yet cannot my heart’s stone walls breach
Nor find its hidden doors

I walk between the gnarled, snow-weighted boughs
Seeking for but the smallest bit of green

I have often found
In the absence of sound
There is a rumble in the ground
Beneath my feet

If one can but hear
By turning your ear
Away from the noisome drear
Peace waits

Look for me out upon the trail
Where greenest mosses thrive
Out where in every small detail
A thousand small things live

Great noises abound
In the air around
So that always, sound
Plagues my ears

Something of fire within me
Yearns to burn through
The years of crumpled papers
Of broken timbers
Of half-built staircases
That make me up

And then let rise
From the ashes
Something unshaped
By flammable things

I find myself e’er wanting of
The things I do not have
Yet never conscious of the lack
That still would fill my heart

Hurrah for northern winds and for the quieting, white snow
That there upon each branch and leaf makes all an artful show