“Doubt Thou the Stars Are Fire” (Hamlet)

Mars, Jupiter and Venus

In a silent line were last night

As I sat under the firmament

My dog by my side

Coyotes howled on the hill nearby

And the desert gave out its exhale of lavender and sage

Bringing in me a cloud of memories

To cover, uncover, shade and let shine

Names without faces, moments once abundant and shy

Where did they go

The years of folly, the years full of time?

At times

I left them on a beach near an angry sea

Or next to the rails, at midnight

Listening to the last train depart

… My dog is now blind

And my glass was half full

While Venus, Mars and Jupiter

Were in silence last night

Across seas, in cities of stone, under walls of concrete

I sat at tables round, square, alone or with happy people

These tables of plenty were never really full

Yet hungry to bed I never went

I cried at rhapsodies, sonatas, Russian and Balkan

Gypsy torment and Romani guitars

Yet every violin always played its favorite songs

No matter who caressed its cords

Where did they go

The years of promises and the times of wonder?

Perhaps I held them against their own race

On a page, a face, a name or an old promise

And

Once I thought to have lost them, as if tempting Venus

Under dark clouds’ veil

But when Mars became of war red and Jupiter healed no pain

I found them again, for they were just forgotten

Not gone, those years, faces and promises made

… But, my dog is blind

And my cup nearly empty

Now

So, why in me did they linger

The quiet whispers

Of simple times?

October 28, 2015

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2015