Lake Como by Nicholas Christopher 英语诗歌

Lake Como  by Nicholas Christopher 英语诗歌

by Nicholas Christopher

 

    The searchlight of a February moon

 

    at the end of the street

 

    bare trees black railing

 

    an eastern star set like a pearl atop a steeple

 

    that shadows the doorway

 

    where the one-armed card shark squats

 

    shuffling his deck on a milk crate

 

    waiting for the No. 6 bus to discharge

 

    the off-duty cop the seamstress

 

    the drunken mechanic and the clerk on crutches

 

    who pauses before his building to watch

 

    the mechanic lose three dollars at blackjack

 

    and then stiffly ascends the five flights

 

    to his two rooms on a shaftway

 

    hanging his coat on a hook

 

    and sitting down at the table

 

    on which this morning he placed

 

    a soup bowl and spoon

 

    a tin of crackers and the crossword

 

    puzzle he had been laboring over

 

    beneath the gaze of his late wife

 

    her color photograph propped up in a small frame

 

    a young woman in a boxy dress and felt cap

 

    waving shyly by the edge of a lake

 

    where over her shoulder beneath a clear sky

 

    a sailboat rides the wind

 

    passengers on the polished deck

 

    gazing at the glowing mountain peaks

 

    the cypresses lining the shore

 

    and the pink palazzi with ancient gardens

 

    these men and women in white

 

    who seem to live upon the water

 

    gliding among themselves oblivious to strife

 

    and all else that wears a body down

 

    some sipping from crystal goblets

 

    others just drinking in the light