Winter Solstice

<p>Winter solstice, the earth open wide<br/>With a heart crushed like footsteps in snow<br/>(((fictitious persons disclaimers implied<br/>To all listening from rooftops below)))<br/>It had rained and the air was like perfume outside<br/>As the sky changed<br/><br/>We began when the ground was still dry<br/>Planting vineyards where vineyards don’t grow<br/>Shaping cypress with pitch on both sides<span><br/>For the nights when our trumpets won’t blow<br/>That regret still there circling like vultures inside<br/>As your face changed?<br/>They don’t stay inside<br/>(there but for Thy grace go I...)<br/>Through the eyes of machines, immaculate scenes<br/>That had already passed me by<span><br/>All the stars on the ground, Noah’s ark in the clouds<span><br/>Set sail in the flood of my mind<br/>The other animals drowned in blasphemous towns<br/>And asked as they passed me by:<br/>“was to do as I please a European disease?”<br/><br/>Winter solstice, the earth had closed down<br/>So with breastplates of righteousness low<span><br/>Searched for streams in the caves underground<br/>Where the Baptists and bootleggers go<br/>And you smile but your vampire complexion still shows<br/>And your past shows<br/>It’s really all that shows<br/>(so often unrecognizably so)<br/><br/>Through the eyes of machines viewed immaculate scenes<br/>That had already passed me by<br/>All the stars on the ground, Noah’s ark in the clouds<br/>But the thought in the back of my mind:<br/>“does my misery feed a metaphysical need<br/>That’s long since passed me by<br/>Neither reasoning why<br/>Nor offering reply?”<span><br/>Dear my newlywed wife<br/>You’re not the love of my life<br/>It had already passed me by<span>---<br/>Finally grasping the line<br/>Casting pearls before swine?<span>