Short Franz Schubert Poems

Gretchen At the Spinning Wheel

(based on Franz Schubert)

wordless at this moment
virginal in a closed room
dark as a berry

Gretchen maid of wood
webbed as an old barn
eyes drops of glass

that seek a window
empty of steps, cast
ing a look at

all that brings no favour
or slowly turns the wheel that
darkly bares the thread;

the cloth of love forsaken;
heartpace of an empty view;
a sort of end, cut.