Lights

Rummaging in the garage
dragging through decades of tangled strands
a sharp wind
breaks the silence of an afternoon
sending multicolored chills
tingling crusty fingers.
Ghosts from Christmas past
linger in the late afternoon shadows
past, present, future.
I cradle an ornament
that holds infinity in my hand
a small blue angel carved out of wood
meticulously painted
in a life lived long ago.
Scents of Bavarian pine,
black forests that are silent, darkly deep
with the residue of Rosstal.
She dreams of a stand of
alpenrausch, schneeglochen, edelweiss,
tannenbaums in the distance.
She waits for Franz
freezing in a sharp north wind
yet wait she does shivering
and then a flash of silver blond hair
cutting across the tangled woods
and he is there, here and everywhere all at once
holding her
completing her
connecting her to memory.

Mark Hammerschick writes poetry and fiction. He holds a BA in English from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a BS and MBA. He is a lifelong resident of the Chicago area and currently lives on the north shore, his professional career has been in digital strategy and online consulting. His current work will be published in The Metaworker, Vext Magazine, Breadcrumbs Magazine, Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, Lucky Jefferson, The Fictional Café, Wingless Dreamer, HP 2020 Poetry Challenge, Trolley Magazine, Blood and Thunder: Musings on the Art of Medicine and The Write Launch, Scarlet Leaf Review, North Dakota Quarterly, The Showbear Family Circus, Carcinogenic Poetry, The Toasted Cheese Literary Journal, Change Seven, Panoplyzine, Borrowed Solace, Waxing and Waning, The Poetic Bond, Willowdown Books, Penultimate Peanut, La Merle Poetry Journal, Muse Pie Press, Shot Glass Journal, The Rockvale Review, Intima Journal and Oregon Poetry Association.