a february afternoon with
rumi and bach

thick crust dense walnut bread
he tears to add to the lamb stew
carrots onions peas a stock
of pureed turnip kale lamb pan
drippings and a kiss a sprinkle
of malbec wine she glides
onto the opulently pillowed
settee under the orange purple
green throw she had crafted
crocheted with cotton yarn
a unique design from wales
serpents’ entwined heads
with splayed tails writhe
her book of illustrated poetry
illuminated greygreen by
the adjacent window she reads
languorously pausing to sigh
let her thoughts’ edges wilt
her muscles’ tension shudder
into stillness
he takes himself to the sunroom
tosses two blankets over the
baby grand lights the cinnamon
incense candle anchors the light
clicks the brass goose neck lamp
opens two collections flips a few
pages settles onto the bench and
depresses the sostenuto pedal
solarium softened wafers of
snowdusted clouds largo cushions
to the ear a repeated motif begs
delicate ornament
naked treebranches bow in and out
of the passing banks of fog turning
to february flake
cascades of starry motifs answer
the damped earth’s throaty turns
she closes her eyes the poems
slide between her waist and
the brocade face of bacchus nymphs
wooden goblets lifted in the sunny
glen of a contrapuntal trio rifting
the passing pheasants’ ruffled fog
bound path
in the dry pungent dark a touch
a pinch a caress the bounding rift
of lines lift into a new key the poet’s
voice glad leaping love the thin
slippery swelling of spring at her
touch the notes wander among
the chords of the ancient chorale
the joys of desiring waystations
of sleep the moored solarium casts
off melodies evaporate into echoes

Craig E. Flaherty, writer of poems, reader at poetry groups, publisher of Coastline Window Poems, The Nature of Light, The Glossy Family, presenter at the Takoma Park Thursday Poetry Reading, poetry group leader, member of Writing a Village. His poetry has appeared in Viator and The Raven’s Perch. A lifelong  performer of church music, organist, carilloneur, pianist with Dotke Piano Trio, husband, father, grandfather, and accompanist to Jordyn Flaherty

Image: Asaavedra32, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons