Golden Hours

[rowens]

Golden Hours
                      for Amira

World cruel as the fairies,
unlisted in books of numbers
in libraries full of tables.

Empty as a heart
opened with unconditional 
difference, nothing
inside when closed.

They defy mirrors:
not as vamps who look real
good in every weather.
The immune particular,

garden-variety gnomes
who walk like smiling royal guards
defy without denying the autumnal lens.

Caught unlabored in corners out of focus,
uncaptured nevertheless,
in baskets brought by princes and servants.