Three Poems by William C. Burns, Jr.

Compact

She opens the lipstick
     many shades too red
And makes deals with God
While pulling up her hose
Smoothes the silk skirt

She tries one more time
     to excite her hair

Again her sister and a man dance
     on the porch
     in the warm and clement
     music of the summer's night
She offers anything
In exchange for what
     they had

The Dancer

The dancer refuses to listen
There's music in her somewhere
A deep down music
And she is trying to hear it

Moving slowly at first
Now faster
She drubs the floor
Faster
A staccato
     on the skins of her feet
Now faster
Ever faster
Moving at the speed of sound
Now moving at the speed of life
Moving beyond rhythm
She's nothing but a blur
And
Like the blades of a fan
She disappears . . .

Window in the Twilight

Stained glass
Shafts of Light
Coin of Sun
Hand held Rainbow

I watched you
From this window
Watched the four winds
Gather in your wake

I watched the blue velvet night
Cascading down from the sky line
While everything in my heart
Spilled over this window sill

I watched your back
Receding
Statues turned
Marking your passage

William C. Burns, Jr. tells us he "was born in Washington DC, circa the early Fifties, which puts him on the trailing edge of the beautiful generation (remember the Hippies? OK for those of you too young to remember, how bout Shaggy from Scooby Doo?).

"Raised in West Virginia in and around the rolling hills and glens of Charleston.

"Moved to South Carolina in 1984 with his wife and three children.

"Lots of degrees (mostly Celsius, some Fahrenheit some Kelvin) in areas such as electrical engineering, biomedical engineering and education.

"Keeps the hounds of starvation at bay by teaching engineering and technology courses at various colleges."