Monotone with Red and Black


The gray sea is silent, its spectral surface
a metallic sheen of zinc.


The gray sand dunes, peppered with stands
of leafless lanky birches, stretch as far as
eyes can see--north to Latvia and Estonia,
south to Russia and beyond.


The gray sky, a lamentation within
a foreboding whisper of endless Winter
across these mythic countries.


You, lost and wistful, stand patiently at
water’s edge facing the mystic Baltic,
soft blue eyes erased by this obscure reticence,
mouth closed tightly against
an immense, biting cold.


Your red wool cap and thick black parka,
the only colors that exist
for one hundred gray-stained miles.