VIENNESE WALTZ

Dresden china shepherdesses

Whirl in the silver sunshine:

Columbine stars

Float in gauze petticoats of light....

Little Columbine ghosts, wrinkled and old,

Smelling of jasmine and camphor:

Prim arms folded over immaculate breasts....

The pirouetting tune dies....

Stars and little faded faces,

Waltzing, waltzing,

Shoot slowly downward

On tinkling music,

Dusty little flowers

Sinking into oblivion.

After the music,

Quiet,

The glacial period renewed,

Monsters on earth,

A mad conflagration of worlds on ardent nights —

These too vanishing —

Silence unending.