Heartbreaking Splendor

The clouds like segments of blood-orange scattered
across the dawn sky in its lilac and gold splendor

frame spreading V-tracks of northbound wild geese
who fill the sky with cries of loneliness and splendor

at the ragged end of winter when the storms break up
and the sun emerges to greet the dogwood splendor

of spring, and the blaze of mountain glaciers above
the city skyline, in their flawless white-white splendor

draws the eye upwards and upwards and up beyond
the sky and blood-orange clouds to
—heartbreaking splendor.