A Piece of the Storm - Mark Strand

[Larry Robinson]

A Piece of the Storm

>From the shadow of domes in the city of domes, 
A snowflake, a blizzard of one, weightless, entered your room 
And made its way to the arm of the chair where you, looking up 
>From your book, saw it the moment it landed. That’s all 
There was to it. No more than a solemn waking 
To brevity, to the lifting and falling away of attention, swiftly, 
A time between times, a flowerless funeral. No more than that 
Except for the feeling that this piece of the storm, 
Which turned into nothing before your eyes, would come back, 
That someone years hence, sitting as you are now, might say: 
“It’s time. The air is ready. The sky has an opening.”

	- Mark Strand