Opalescence
(after the painting by William Baziotes)
In the opalescence
of my youth I knew
the colorations of my life
kaleidoscopic fragments
of iridescent glass
blue skies by day
and yellow-red by night
indescent bubbles,
butterfly wings and fireflies.
the scent of clear-blue air
and taste of milky snow
as if my world
would never change
and I would be
forever a child
in the grayness
of my years.
Timelessness II
(after the painting by Perle Fine)
After the game is over
an exclamation point
after the search
the journey ended
after the hunt
with the prey in tow
after the shift of blue
to a distant red
after the cold and frenzy
of the final hours
there is only time
without direction
only time
out of sequence
only time
without duration
only time
without a point.
Timeless Spring
(after the painting by Kazuaki Tamahashi)
It never ends, it seems,
the irony of spring
when the warm rains fall
and the sun sends
glowing particles of light
to dust the leaves
with amaranthine life.
Or so it seems
from the Vernal Equinox
through June
the listless flowers bud
and bleed a slow mortality.
Even in a timeless spring
the immutable rose
grows old
and withers on the vine.
