The Viewing (Sonnet)
As we reflect thy darkness at mourning
When faces smile darken’d in vast twilight
and ribbons of woe on wind are soaring;
when the raven's crow shroud thy cold respite.
Should pittance be spared for but a penny?
Thy subtlety masked carbon silhouettes
that forge a loneliness known to many
as whitewashed beaches that son doth forget.
Though happenstance wrings from its cloth raindrops
that pool upon the day’s lamentations
Ye collect the tithe within thy spirits
and fill it with his warm exaltation.
For what the framework lacks in shallow breath
will shadow the night and live in its death.
© 2014 J. V. Stanley
