Yaldo: The Grand Manor

Woodsmoke and a distant loudspeaker

Filter into this clear

Air, and blur.

The red tomato's in, the green bean;

The cook lugs a pumpkin

From the vine

For pies. The fir tree's thick with grackles.

Gold carp loom in the pools.

A wasp crawls

Over windfalls to sip cider-juice.

Guests in the studios

Muse, compose.

Indoors, Tiffany's phoenix rises

Above the fireplace;

Two carved sleighs

Rest on orange plush near the newel post.

Wood stoves burn warm as toast.

The late guest

Wakens, mornings, to a cobalt sky,

A diamond-paned window,

Zinc-white snow.