James Malone Smith

Her Reverie During Arpeggios

A placid pond restless for wind
Confusion of minnows in a willow’s shadow
A pine seedling pale beneath
ringing shades of great trees
grown tedious as saints

Brilliantly black, a monstrous piano
the bust of some genius upon it
And billowing out white, a long drape glimmers
blown wide by a droll breeze idling
in from over water forests fields

The soldiers clashing in the salt marsh