December Dusk

December twirls smoke-curlicues

To avenues of bluer blues

Outlines are stark before the dark

Of dusk bids brusque land-lords adieu

The lowering of evening

Is tangible, its air a cloth

Spilling in satin seraphim

And overtures of ether Bach

Soon afternoon is stripped of light

Tuning tresses with silent night

As star-froth falls to deck the halls

Of hill and field in silver-white

And bard becomes a beggar where

The yard and boulevard are bare

Of rush, the plush of velvet hush

 A brush on dusk’s flushed thoroughfare

Blue deepens until naught remains

Of scenes outside our windowpanes

Where peace on earth is home and hearth

Beneath the dark that dusk unchains

And suddenly the world is strange

As dark and daylight interchange

In blue adieu and curlicue

Of wood-smoke drifting ‘cross the range

© Janet Martin