By Douglas J. Lanzo
Copyright 2022

First published in Academy of the Heart and Mind (June 8, 2022)

Her face was clad
in blue and yellow,
with kobza played
quite musically,
her voice rang out
across the courtyard,
to tender ears
of school-age children,
all gathered round
attentively,
piercing their souls
with haunting refrain:

“All we are is dust in the wind…”

It echoed through
the streets of Kiev,
past golden domes
and cathedral spires,
over chain bridge,
crossing river tides,
past peaceful pasture
and fertile steppes,
through pine forests
nestled in mountains,
flowing down streams
of ice-crowned peaks,
melting with snow
into what could be…
fading memories.