RED OPIUM

Moody milieu drifting
on a cool blue autumn wind
blood skies fade darkly,
the black bones of scarecrow trees
melting against a pale moon

burning leaf smoke billows upward,
a vague hashish perfumed residue
smudging the soft sky
with gray-white clouds
of slow kinetic art

deeply inhale the night
which leaves a haunting haze
of melancholy poppy dreams,
a warm shroud on a chill eve,
settling over like
surreal sleep.

October 25, 1998