Mozart on a Winter Afternoon

--Charlotte Mandel

       

duo

Bows upon strings, violin and viola

sound notes light as gauze wings

of a dragonfly touching a stone

risen in the midst of a mountain brook

or whirling foam of rapids

loud as applause

quartet

Cello and another violin add

deepening river currents

flashes of silver scales

quick quivering fins

quintet

With clarinet the widening stream

flows past moss fringed with blue thyme

willow branches swaying to test

reflections in sun-and-shade dappled water

air echoing birds whistles and trills

audience

"Heaven," sighs a listener.

Cheers reverberate to stained glass windows

We exit bundled against wintry wet wind

with visions of waist-high sunflowers

sibilant violet surf rinsing white sands

a rare cloud or two sailing

faultless blue