People in the Wind

  by Margot Farrington

   Inside the wood stove the smith steadies,

   proclaims his alliance with flame as

   heat quickens his hammer. And the singer, at first

   inaudible, fashions her rising song from seasons

   stored within logs of seasoned cherry, birch.

   I have delighted in their concert

   winter days and nights, rapt before

   doors framed in brass, their

   glass etched with twin wreaths. Circles

   that focused wonders I am about to mention:

   livid saints and salamanders,

   paraphernalia of magicians

   performing-with blue fluidity-

   their act without their masters.

   And always before curtain, the casket

   split asunder, the thief's hand passing over unattainable gems.

   But now there are people in the wind;the chimney sucks them down. I hear the singer inhale a choir; voice of thousands.

   A purity of anguish to leave the listener breathless. The notes, the notes are inferno;

   the smith beats out a knell.

   Those ashes I spill tomorrow upon freshly fallen snow have already blown for days across the city.

  -



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