a grain of truth

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