The Woman at the Window

The Woman at the Window by Donald Wandrei
(After a pen-and-ink drawing by Howard Wandrei)

Beyond the window’s tracery
Of arabesques the blood-red sun,
Amid a realm of sorcery,
Stares with an eye she can not shun.

Out of the window’s smouldering red
In all the years by time begun,
With that wild color overspread,
Her face has watched the dying sun.

She scans the shadows of her land,
The crimson, never-setting sun,
The blood-red waving wastes of sand
That her domain has overrun.

Ever the orb’s fantastic glare
Of burning, baleful scarlet spun
Meets the mysterious woman’s stare
Locked fast with that hypnotic sun.

Till darkness falls – it never will -
Her vigil never will be done:
Her timeless vision staring still
Beyond the lifetime of the sun.