Refracting blue absorbing black

occasionally
this skylight becomes an aviary
with one glance upward
as no window opens on birds passing
having rather a view of an alley below
apartment bricks and mortar
and neighbors who stare into same
or at these walls
           
plaster white as casing stones
a bed a desk its chair turned round
you sit barefoot and short-sleeved
beneath the glass partition directly
in front of the floor fan that merely forces
hot air from one wall to its opposite.

And those pitched panes above
through which if idly gazing
yellow tendrils wend turquoise
ghost skiffs glide or dusk's pink sugar
is drawn out miles those clouds

the backdrop often for wings' knifing
an altitude greater than recognition
these birds
their species
unknown.  Enough

this captured glimpse
movement a product of muscles
not yours you imagine legs tucked firmly
buckling currents captured
a ripple's stretched blade
beyond eyes' momentary ocean
then island or new star
imaged fallen into an empty-handed curl
closing upon its unknown volume
a wave of air bounding one wall's heat
passes through you
approaching your contrary.

Lance Calabrese