Picture: The Interior of the Pavlovs’ country house by Konstantin Somov
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How many sunsets can you count
At the country house?
How many fables would you recount
To a cat, a parrot and a mouse?
To the cat I would tell her three
About the canary, the stink bug, and the bee;
To the parrot I would tell none
Lest he bores us ’till we’re cooked and done.
To the mouse I would tell ’em all
So his many children he would then recall.
As for the first query? Be still, I ain’t forgot;
It takes time to undo the weft
You ain’t woven yet; I won’t leave you bereft,
At the country house one contemplates a lot,
But no longer than one should; a sunset
Burns faster than matches where I am at,
Oftentimes you don’t even catch the pinks
So one’s left with visions. One thinks.
At the country house instead, let me tell ya,
We’ve got a porch as grand as a multiplex,
We’ve got first class pathways to the playa.
So how many can you count? How many necks
Would it take to witness a miracle?
Just one. One sunset, one spectacle.
Not the type one trims and recounts,
No, none of that. Only the one that counts.
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Herons