Time is a River without Banks (Chagall)

 A giant fish carries
a grandfather clock through the air
high above the gentle flow
of the Dvina caught in the first glare
of light over a small, Russian town.
One side of the river
is a powder-blue dawn,
while night still holds the other
in a realm of indigo
where two young lovers
embrace in the shadows.
The woman is turning the color
of the morning to come,
as midnight slowly fades
over the man in its shade.

With a brush dipped
in memories,
the artist painted
in the language of infinity.

The gold pendulum swings
as the green fish with wings soars
into the expanding sky,
rising above the light and dark shores –
caught up in a timeless ecstasy.
A hand beneath the face
of the fish plays sweetly
on a fiddle in this space
where a wild freedom repeats
in the joyful race
of the lover’s heart beats.
The little town throbs with the music
of a measureless dance,
as the mirroring hours
wander past in the river.

With a brush dipped
in memories,
the artist painted
in the language of infinity.

2002