The Given Things

Threading the earth
With persistent memories
That shade a marble sky,

That cool stained glass of long ago,
Glowing and fresh in little saplings
That sleep, knotted at the roots.

It never needed silly dreams,
Vague songs with crystal spools
Of icy taste and twang,
Steamed cold when plucked
From the stores of the mind.

A forgotten loom was in those shadows
That raced darkness up the wall
Weaving in a teetering dance.

Spring, summer, winter, fall;
Always but a few memories
As they tangle in the grove,
Where words still court them.