Remembrance
Remembrance, as I peek around the edge
Of evenings past, retraces in the dust
A wisp, a whispered picture meant to show
A room where dragons frolic to and fro
As fairy-beasts peer down from every ledge.
A muse, a music rich with life and lust.
A study I knew long, so long ago.
The room was red as wine and garden-green.
There, on that marble perch was often seen
The firebird majestic as he sunned,
Each plume the crystal hue of ice-warm fire
His eye as searing as the sun-god’s ire,
That burning eye that flashes as he’s stunned
By waves of dragon scales past gliding bright
With colors on the edge of waking sight
Around, around the flustered firebird
Until the victims scolding cries are heard.
The shimmering serpent races toward the light
And traces Celtic knots against the sky
Where silver-winged fish go floating by.
And I, in all this splendor. Where am I?
Beneath the shady chestnut tree I lie.
And trace the creatures out with dots and lines.
That swallowtail darting tree to tree?
You see him here a darting melody.
The bass, that mighty oak round which entwines
The harmonies of honeysuckle vines.
The dragon and the firebird? They are there
As the gleaming of vibrations in the air.
I tap the beat as a butterfly chimerical
Holds meter with his wings, soothing and lyrical,
Until the plod of weary centipedes
Restates the quietude. And all recedes.
Remembrance, ah, Remembrance spins his tales
Too weak, too thin. The resurrection fails.
I finger strings, but now they merely fret
As the music fades to a smoky silhouette.
Of evenings past, retraces in the dust
A wisp, a whispered picture meant to show
A room where dragons frolic to and fro
As fairy-beasts peer down from every ledge.
A muse, a music rich with life and lust.
A study I knew long, so long ago.
The room was red as wine and garden-green.
There, on that marble perch was often seen
The firebird majestic as he sunned,
Each plume the crystal hue of ice-warm fire
His eye as searing as the sun-god’s ire,
That burning eye that flashes as he’s stunned
By waves of dragon scales past gliding bright
With colors on the edge of waking sight
Around, around the flustered firebird
Until the victims scolding cries are heard.
The shimmering serpent races toward the light
And traces Celtic knots against the sky
Where silver-winged fish go floating by.
And I, in all this splendor. Where am I?
Beneath the shady chestnut tree I lie.
And trace the creatures out with dots and lines.
That swallowtail darting tree to tree?
You see him here a darting melody.
The bass, that mighty oak round which entwines
The harmonies of honeysuckle vines.
The dragon and the firebird? They are there
As the gleaming of vibrations in the air.
I tap the beat as a butterfly chimerical
Holds meter with his wings, soothing and lyrical,
Until the plod of weary centipedes
Restates the quietude. And all recedes.
Remembrance, ah, Remembrance spins his tales
Too weak, too thin. The resurrection fails.
I finger strings, but now they merely fret
As the music fades to a smoky silhouette.