After Advent – a poem by John Muro

After Advent
 
It’s as if the world has gradually 
Succumbed and fallen asleep, 
Comforted by the still-tongued 
Psalms of falling snow. Each flake 
Ushered in perfect pitch in dusk-soft 
Diminuendo and settling upon the 
Garden bench like a corporal cloth. 
Lean cypresses, adorned in chasubles 
Of crusted ice, stand in cold comportment, 
Dispersing soot-white mists between 
Their overlapping boughs like incense
While we wait for antiphonal winds to 
Raise, in easeful bearing, our poor offertory 
Of moon towards a monochromatic heaven.

A life-long resident of Connecticut, John Muro is a graduate of Trinity College. He has also earned advanced degrees from Wesleyan University and the University of Connecticut. His professional career has been dedicated to environmental stewardship and conservation, and he has held several executive and volunteer positions in those fields. Over the past year, John has had the good fortune to dedicate more time to his life-long passion for poetry. His first volume of poems, In the Lilac Hour, was published by Antrim House in October of 2020 and is available on Amazon. His work has also recently appeared or will soon appear in Amethyst Review, First Literary Review-East, Plum Tree Tavern, Freshwater Clementine Unbound, The Trouvaille Review and elsewhere.