the lamp-post

the lamp-post by the corner-stone
soft sepia light and blurring edges –
a wash of antiquity clouds the evening.
colors shift until the lamp is lit
swift young fire raises its head, encased in glass
and bordered all round by black
latticework.
wind like yellow, crinkling pages
stirs the fancy of an old-fashioned man
whose carriage-wheels take him past
the scene.
Once there was a coach over cobbles rumbling,
the yellowed light fading in and out from above.
no moment is left, but for that which has gone
over through sepia streets, away from the city –
the carriage elegant driven by
a ghost both antique and divine.