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Music drifts through the trees
beyond the house. 
Dance music,
played on violin and cello,
from the great hall where ladies 
in their fancy dresses
waltz the Blue Danube
with men decked out in their finest.

A crackling fire warms the hearth,
belying the bitter wind
that blows in the night outside, 
and laughter rings 
through the empty rooms upstairs
filling the house with smiles.

Flowers of every shape and colour,
cut from the garden before the rain started,
adorn the party room
and the entryway beyond,
casting their scent like magic
o’er the gathering.

None pay any notice to the wind
though it tries to rattle 
at the windows in the dark.
Inside, the warmth is beckoning
to any left out in the cold,
for the door is always open
and all are welcomed with a smile.


february 2005
©Janet Reid





Awarded by Poetic Constellations ~ June 15, 2005