Chrysalis

From windows swathed in cold and frost
An anxious warmth pressed up to glass
As if, in snow, the square was lost
A blizzard that would never pass

Unknown, the snow fell softly on
And piled for want of foot or hand
But here, the quiet door gave yawn
And a woman walked through the freezing land

She studied the frozen arch of ice
That flew from the mouth of a fountain fish
And turned her eyes like a child to vice
To the cloud-covered sky, with the madness to wish

And the once-content people in their homes breathed like ghosts
Pressed up against windows and gawked as she stood
As she opened her mouth toward their heavenly hosts
And sang of an act that is misunderstood

Here, a shadow of a smile fell over her face
As a blue tint began in her shivering lips
And her song became slow in the snow’s soft embrace
Made a dirge as the blue spread through her fingertips

Her requiem flew, waxed and waned with the wind
Whose chill cut like blades on her cheeks that grew pale
And she shuddered in frost like a man who has sinned
And must suffer his penance in a soul like a jail

The steel world rang silent but for echoes, like death
That chimed off of steeples and were muted by rust
And the woman who knew she took no sweeter breath
Breathed out her last and grew silent in trust

And the people inside were left suspended in fright
And they heard not beginning or ending of song
But they saw on her face, as the day became night
That her eyes never blinked, she had sung and was gone.