Fireflies

I look out windows all the time.
                  ---- Andrei Bely, Kotik Letaev

I

West of the high ground,
in valleys of Elysian
youth,

Chasing fireflies as
night smothered
Sun.

Next to my bed
they
lit up a jar.

They brightened
darkness I feared.

They died shining
as dreams endeared.

II

West of prince's port wind shudders cries.
Here fireflies die in jarred eyes.

The Last Post (To M.T. 1892-1941)

From the Sparrow Hills
a cry breaks from
the city below.

Marina, now silent, sways gently
from rope crushing her throat.

She scratched song in timeless stone.

Like a solicitous mother she hushed, 
in honeyed tones, breath's exacting law.

Soporific Sweetheart

Your cool skin and dark eyes
are soft rain and clouded skies.

Your heart beats in time with the rain.

Your sigh tames what shakes the pane.

Velvet eyed lullaby on dreary days,
sifting gold from clouded grays.

You slight rainy-day blight
with dew's kiss and spoils
of night.

December

The powdery hush
of pharmaceuticalm falls.
It's cold.
Wind fastens 
mouths and
eyes shut.
Fear's parole
swathes all in
semblance and
surrender.

It is December.
Night veils flaws kindly
and skirts laws deftly.
Thieves take solace in short days.
Trees molt leaves 'neath faint rays.
Death casts bold dyes
on snow buried fields.

December.
Every breath stings.
The birds will not sing.