for Catherine and Eric
Riding the Super Shuttle from Kansas
City International Airport’s like
gliding shopping carts through a Steuben Glass
superstore. Trees’ crystal-cluster limbs strike
the eye—a museum of giant gems
hovering under smoke-gray clouds—their dull
glaze, patient as faith in old sculptor’s whim,
awaiting the break in haze, steady pull
of sun’s glow flowing over and through each
branch, frosted trunk, turning crusted fields
of grass into brazen, bright blaze, its reach
grasping slithered highway curbs, risk revealed
in ice-scarred signs warning of dark, dull-gold
flesh—hidden, slick-spot temptress in the road.
Roger Armbrust
December 12, 2007
