Christmas Past

Orange Barney’s flurry feline coat
So cool and damp from a walk
Amidst barren, silent limbs
Winding in the spiral flakes of waltzing snow.

At an oaken table
It is second breakfast
Butter, warm breads
Juices, eggs and bacon.
Here is health and life!
Here is music for my health!

Tchaikovsky’s “Winter Dreams”
Distant children’s laughter
Before the sparkling Christmas Fir.
Shreds of paper,
Gold and silver ribbons,
Tea cups,
Wholesome life!

I wait
I listen
As in a bath
As in the green-blue sea
In open sight
Words spark to my ear:
“Time for breakfast!”

Sweet perceptions clamber to greet my lips:
The symphonic, percussive offbeat hoofed bass beats---
an offbeat sleigh
Drawing down the road, now veering, now racing
Patterning the fields
Beneath the boney knuckle and creaking branch
Water sprouts, the green sap grows in Winter’s strong grip.

Here I am!
Beyond the pale of words
My boney hand winds another line.