“Porcelain Morning”


Porcelain Morning

Kinder still the porcelain morning:
kaolin clay
baked in the kiln of the evening
sun,   cleansed
of the dross of darkness,
translucent resonance,
impermeable
white.

Pink peonies await
and the glossy leaves —
choose your colors,
paint
with care.

by D. G. Vachal © 2013

*** image by TTor

The Years, My Friend

Winter by Farhad
The Years, My Friend

The years, my friend, have not been kind
upon your marble face,   I hear the river songs
tinkle with the cymbals,
your eyes are shriveled grapes upon the vine,
your mouth a wounded cherry,
pecked reddish-grey
by restless robins.

Take my hand, my friend,
let us go to the calling fields that blaze with diamonds
under the eternal skies,
to the orchards in the midst of these winter days,
where leafless branches stand dauntless
in the endless cold, with jubilant tales to tell
in the blizzard of their days —

harken to the legends
of the root and the bud and the sun,
and the promise
(believe the promise)
that warmth and springtime
will come,
(it always comes)
once again.

by D. G. Vachal © 2013

*** Photography by Farhad

October Storm Prelude

October Storm Prelude

Cling on to the branches,
mandarin and lime,
russet,
flavescent leaves,
still-life in this breathless
moment —

Clouds come in,
a shroud of gunmetal
pewter,
a taunting chill,
a silenced song —

Tomorrow
the wind will howl
as the wolf
and at full moon
tidewaters
overflow —

Tomorrow my tears
fall with the rain
for the broken
branches
and the fallen
leaves.

by D. G. V. © 2012

*** Photography by Albena Markova