AN ORDINARY SKY MIGHT RAIN DOWN PEARLS
an ordinary sky might rain down pearls; the children trudging by with overcast sighs to neighborhood bus stop corners, the school day ' s world,
swinging their plaid satchels, dreamedit ' s an ordinary sky in almost december;
we would like to move the hands on the clock, the weeks of the calendar
as in old films on the late, late show: the vast days ticking by like seconds; or to be imbued near the yellow cafeteria trays
as if with sudden music; the Ghost of Christmas Past on a casement draft... floating out of arithmetic and never looking back.
oh that the sky in sympathy at last full up with quelling angels could comply: brnging us
baskets of blizzards from an ordinary sky tied up with silver ribbon,
the scarlet and the gold. and gaily knowing nothing we needed to know but mystery
in the freezing cold we ' d burst into the schoolyards, still in the day and freed from history!
in the purple of starry dismissals, like the Magi, on our way.
13 september 2016