Two Octets from an Ice Storm

sunday inventory octet
(1/8/17)

gamelan clink with cello ostinato
contrasts with ice clatter hitting the window;

a box of colored pencils, two matted prints,
Waley’s translation of The Book of Songs, black

bookmark protruding, sofa pillow’s compass
rose design on ecru fabric, collected

chord progressions in a black 3-ring notebook:
ice transmuting to rain as in morning’s dream


◦    ◦    ◦


bookshelf inventory
(1/8/17)

on the one hand The Romance of the Rose; on
the other, The Raymond Chandler Omnibus—

a shame there’s no place for the printer except
the next to lowest shelf; at least it’s all dusted

now from black-spined Lord Dunsany to oddly
mauve Auto-da-Fé, cover slightly crinkled—

framed on opposite ends of the top shelf: Hicks
Peaceable Kingdom, Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream


Jack Hayes
© 2017