Bell

once I imagined the bell

all the rest came easily

the young man in the burgundy coat

lilies tolling their scent in the garden

pale moon over narrow streets, it all

dreamt itself into tall dark trees

shivering with sparrows and wind

the wind in the shutters

the nervous courtyard

something sacred at the altar

the pale child in her ghost dress

the book with its gossamer gilded pages

its thin black-pebbled cover

this docile child, butterfly wings

the old man bent into his cane

shuffling, shuffling, the pale moon

it all came quite easily, then

the moon walked into the mountains

the stars fell the old man fell

the lilies dropped their thick petals

the young man became a branch

scratching, scratching the window

the shutters opened their louvers the fan

making its ocean sound it all became

lightness and bright stripes on the wall

morning morning and I step into the garden

thick slow beat of pelican wings

into a cloud of pale moths