Vladislav Khodasevich; portrait by Valentina Mikhailovna Khodasevich
BLUE EYES
Vladislav Khodasevich,
past master of style
felt that truth, not style
unites the beautiful with Uglich
& art with life (so much ongoing
sordidness & light).
& if the heart is upright,
somehow… even pain might sing
as honest witness to the memory
of what was loved, back then.
My mother, once again
so firm in her infirmary
looks in my face with such solemnity
I have to shift my gaze
from stern blue eyes –
your aching isolation of senility
since I remember just how quick
you sprang for joy (sheer
giddiness of being here)!
Now you’ve forgotten how to walk.
Maybe we’ll limp along in spirit, then –
as once Natasha with Osip,
Anna, Nadezhda… slip
the chains of boring gravity one
Leap Day! Deep in snow & sunlight
not much different from Siberia
or Voronezh, syestra-Columbia –
imaginary friend… (wings’ wavy flight).
2.29.20
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