Glass Magnolias
I stare again at the magnolias
cut in frosted glass. They wind
around the waiting room, devised
to distract. The outside world
is a blur, frozen.
The stems curl and tighten,
slowly constricting our energy.
A never ending pattern, defying
its design. The colourless pane
offers fleeting glimpses of clarity:
within one solitary bloom
a section of concrete courtyard;
others hold the faces of strangers,
mutated, in their various stages of growth.
I don’t recognise my own.
New Year’s Eve
Unnoticed
the first fat flakes
begin their soundless descent
pirouetting through the air,
summoning others
into a frenzy.
Oblivious
we dance beside them.
Vignettes in windows.
Our music
was muffled out there.
Unnecessary.
The grandfather clock smirks,
he’s the only one ready
for the countdown...
We charge our glasses
then join hands
to sing it in.
A blank page, another year.
And snow settles silently
on snow.