snow is falling like a prayer
the light of dusk trickles through
like a sparkling flare
the lakes are not closed and are black
like night where your sleepwalking
wakes me covered in stars
you are an angel without wings
against the banks of windows
etched in frost

naked and evoking invocations
in your bare feet
while the flooring plant shunts its
business past the mill houses
and a freight calls hollow
in the depths

hypnotize me with your dream sunken
eyes the brows relaxed
the wrists patient as they sling
alms

I sit mesmerized
and fearful
while snowflakes
sifting past the neighbours
light stitch paisley patterns
across your firm breasts

you always return
and this red glow LCD
from our ninety eighty
seven clock gleams
hot

the waterbed is warm
from the heater
the furnace cycles up
the flooring plant
shift changes
and you snuggle
against me
throwing a thin
slender leg
and ankle over
me like an anchor

and I sleep and dream
of mermaids
freed from the bows
of sunken ships
happy and russet
haired

temptous and hardy