Mielikko's Mid-afternoon Reflections

The Dunedin Public Library was running a little event to encourage poetry
among the public, by providing a little bit of card to submit a poem on
(the idea being that you put the card in a box, so that this weekend it
will appear on a 'poetry curtain'). I took one of the cards to work with
me, and ended up writing the following sonnet on it. Basically, it's a
description of the view from an ODT window at 4:30 p.m. on a typical
Dunedin day in late June/early July.

Mid-afternoon Reflections

Beyond grey battlements and towers' frown
The sleepy winter sun has bade farewell
While night-time rides to claim its starry crown
And interregnum twilight casts its spell.
The wafting currents, land of flags and gulls,
Invade and harry hapless city street:
They pillage inbetween the briefest lulls
And pounce upon the prey they chance to meet.
So far above, the madman's brush-stroke clouds
Are scattered 'cross the sky like battle-slain:
So tugged and torn, these shreds of tomb-grey shrouds,
These phantoms of some long-forgotten rain.
While desk is lit with glint of dusky gleam,
My mind's ablaze with fiery sparks of dream.

-Mielikko.