Leaded Lights

The glass is cut,

so carefully cut,

so carefully arranged

to break up the light

as it reflects it

in a kaleidoscope of colour.

Light cracked by lead,

bright white 

or gilded by sunshine

or bent into rainbows

refracted

to paint colours in reflected shadows

to be carried by a quixotic messenger

and reflected into grey lives.

The reflection is fragmenting

as it falls

breaking up the grey,

so that even the shafts 

of multi-coloured illumination

can make no sense of it.

https://freeverserevolution.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/fvr-issue-ii-summer-2021.pdf