Patrick Kelly

Halcyon Days

	Shake the glass domed paperweight,
	some forgotten Ontario greeting,
	make the snow fall
	around the lonely brown cottage,
	a candle burning in the empty window,

	hear the cicada cry of a little girl
	struggling out of her mother's arms,
	desperate to stop the inevitable

	as a door slams 
	and geraniums tremble
	in the cold breeze.

	The snow glitters and settles
	on the bottom of the globe,
	out of reach again
	on the top shelf.