Lucky Things

Slower drags the laggard night
Day still brags the longer bright:
“Snake a little further home!

Take by the old temple dome
Up toward Cathedral meadows
Bargain with the growing shadows!”

Cloud knights canter on the trees
That bunch and reach around the breeze
A shivering maze of twiggy fingers

Crocus once ignited lingers
Purple things the sweeter glow
When dusky lights the scanter grow

Singers now have met their matches
Blackbirds up in woodland patches
Own the right to night’s fanfare

Toasting sneaks across the air
Distant peeks through leaded lights
Return their homeful resting sights

One tends fire and one sets table
Magpies mount a soft-lit gable
Landlord now to builder brings

And do they feel like lucky things
As I in my own brimming lot
Fuller than the winner’s pot?

Fat my urns with yellow gems
Happy bulbs are now in stems
Starry brighter than electric

Two the prosa sing symmetric
To the kings of unknown names
And for the glory of Saint James