A Vain Word
by Michael R. Burch

Oleanders at dawn preen extravagant whorls
as I read in leaves’ Sanskrit brief moments remaining
till sunset implodes, till the moon strands grey pearls
under moss-stubbled oaks, full of whispers, complaining
to the darkening autumn, how swiftly life goes—
as I fled before love ... Now, through leaves trodden black,
shivering, I wander as winter’s first throes
of cool listless snow drench my cheeks, back and neck.

I discerned in one season all eternities of grief,
the specter of death sprawled out under the rose,
the last consequence of faith in the flight of one leaf,
the incontinence of age, as life’s bright torrent slows.

O, where are you now?—I was timid, absurd.
I would find comfort again in a vain word.

Published by Chrysanthemum and Tucumcari Literary Review. Keywords/Tags: vain, word, love, oleanders, dawn, leaves, Sankskrit, autumn, winter, snow, seasons, specter, death, rose

Vacuum
by Michael R. Burch

Over hushed quadrants
forever landlocked in snow,
time’s senseless winds blow ...

leaving odd relics of lives half-revealed,
if still mostly concealed ...
such are the things we are unable to know

that once intrigued us so.

Come then, let us quickly repent
of whatever truths we’d once determined to learn:
for whatever is left, we are unable to discern.

There’s nothing left of us; it’s time to go.

Keywords/Tags: college, quadrants, winter, snow, winds, time, relics, deposits, artifacts, memories, hushed, silent, vacuum

All Afterglow
by Michael R. Burch

Something remarkable, perhaps ...
the color of her eyes ... though I forget
the color of her eyes ... perhaps her hair
the way it blew about ... I do not know
just what it was about her that has kept
her thought lodged deep in mine ... unmelted snow
that lasted till July would be less rare,
clasped in some frozen cavern where the wind
sculpts bright grotesqueries, ignoring springs’
and summers’ higher laws ... there thawing slow
and strange by strange degrees, one tick beyond
the freezing point which keeps all things the same
... till what remains is fragile and unlike
the world above, where melted snows and rains
form rivulets that, inundate with sun,
evaporate, and in life’s cyclic stream
remake the world again ... I do not know
that we can be remade—all afterglow.

[Note: “inundate with snow” is not a typo.] Keywords/Tags: afterglow, remarkable, light, color, eyes, hair, snow, frozen, cavern, grotesqueries, freezing, thaw, degrees, melt, melted, permafrost, snow, rain, rivulets, sun, evaporate, evaporation, love, loss, parting, separation

I'M THE SOLITARY PRINCESS
OF THIS INHIBITED ISLAND
TRYING NOT TO MESS
ON THIS FROSTY ICELAND
BUT MY FATE IS SO WORSE
I'M IN A PLACE THAT'S CURSED
MY CHANCES OF SURVIVING IS LOW
AS MY THRONE IS UNDERNEATH SNOW
NOW,
I'M HERE LIKE A WAIF
ALONE AND LOST,WITH FROZEN TEARS
BELIEVING THAT YOU ARE SAFE
FAR AWAY FROM HERE
THE COLD WIND SWIRLING AROUND
ARE PUSHING ME TO THE GROUND
BUT I'M SURE YOU WONT KNOW
THAT EVEN I'LL BE BURIED UNDERNEATH THE SNOW

Melting
by Michael R. Burch

for Beth

Entirely, as spring consumes the snow,
the thought of you consumes me: I am found
in rivulets, dissolved to what I know
of former winters’ passions. Underground,
perhaps one slender icicle remains
of what I was before, in some dark cave—
a stalactite, long calcified, now drains
to sodden pools whose milky liquid laves
the colder rock, thus washing something clean
that never saw the light, that never knew
the crust could break above, that light could stream:
so luminous,
                       so bright,
                                         so beautiful . . .
I lie revealed, and so I stand transformed,
and all because you smiled on me, and warmed.

Keywords/Tags: spring, melting, snow, winter, icicle, stalactite, underground, cave, transformation, love, warmth

As I was walking outside
Wrapped in a thick, black jacket
I was beckoned by the park
It was shining a sparkling white
Despite the darkness of the night

I stepped in and I could feel
Powder-soft snow under my feet
I reached down to grip its gentleness
But as I held it in my hand
It burned my skin like hot sand

From above, a few flakes fell
Brightening the sky like little lamps
And soon, they lit everywhere
Until its delightful density
Formed a bright-bounded screen

As the snow crept inside me
I shook uncomfortably
And longed for my lone home
“In there it's clear and dry
Out here I shouldn't roam.”

Soon after I arrived at home
The snowfall ceased
Its veil fell to the ground
No light was around me
Just a white monotony
I shook and felt the cold
Inside me

Oh I’ve climbed the tallest mountain
I took the steps so slow
And at the top I looked around
At people down below.
The hustle and the bustle
The rushing in the snow
And knowing I was part of it
It kind of made me glow.