[Alexandra Baez]

Revision

Window, March


Oh weeping window, braced against the crisp
young day! March has caprices—now it lifts
upon your face in mist, then beads and drips.

Just yesterday, it greeted me with clear
views through your panes and into shining air.
Each morning, all of life seems capsuled here

within your little picture’s latest shifts
to wakened sun or winter-laden wisps
of coldness hesitating on the cusp

of spring. And only one thing stays the same:
round every pull of whim, round every claim
of weather—your illusionary frame!


Revisions:
S1 L1--"Oh" was "O"
S1 L3--"then" was "in"
S2 L1--"Just" was "but"
S3 L2 was "to lilting sun or wan, enshrouded lisps"
S4 L4--em dash was ellipsis, "illusion-bearing" was "dilapidated"



Original

Window, March


Oh, weeping window, braced against the crisp
young day! March has caprices—now, it lifts
upon your face in mist, in beads and drips.

These mornings, I arise not knowing which
will greet me—scenes of shrouded depths, or clear
views through your panes and into yellow air.
Each picture clasps me with a cocksure grip,

as if the whole of life were bosomed there—
in lilts of sun, but also subtle lisps
of coldness hesitating on the cusp

of spring. And only one thing stays the same
round every pull of whim, round every claim
of weather—your dilapidated frame!