~MAXIANNE BERGER~

EXPOSURE

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The carousel has stopped.  Absolved of all
colour, a silver-nitrate sky permits
the thinnest filaments of winter to filter
through a candy-streaked awning
faded as our wedding canopy.  Hurdy-gurdy
laughter and the barker's blessing cling, silent
as peeling paint, to wooden reins and bridles.
I rode muffled in my veil for warmth, unaware
your flapping scarf, fringed like a prayer shawl,
masked the far-off murmuring of real affairs.
A grey laminate of snow, long cleared
of glass shards, is shredded wherever wind
bullied its belligerent way across the grounds.
Only some silhouette crouched behind a lens,
casting this weathered doubt on the photo's lower
edge, notices the horses going nowhere, still.
 
 

© by Maxianne Berger