Winter Painting

 My Painting This Winter:

My winter canvas, a vivid sight,

Snow stained crimson, a startling light

Falls like blood, scorching land’s might,

Drought, a plague, in the dead of night.

On the distant horizon, naught remains,

Shattered fragments, starry domains,

Extinguished stars, mere dust’s gains,

Transformed universe, death's dark stains.

The universe shifts, death and decay,

My painting aflame, in fiery display,

Carved by stone fingers, a solemn array,

Each withered branch, a letter's relay.

Fire ablaze, night and sky it takes,

Fiery meteors, the crimson lake,

Desiring not paradise, friendships to forsake,

Alone I sail, in seas yet to awake.

To depths immense, where air ignites,

In my lungs, seafoam’s tender bites,

Embracing shadows, in their poetic rites,

From death’s shriek, a phoenix ignites.

Maxwell O’Reilly