An Elegy for Cherry Blossoms

This is a sestina, a style of poetry where the same six words are used to end every line, but in a specified order determined by someone somewhere for reasons unknown.  It ends with three lines that also use the same six words.  Written 4/29/2013.

The out-of-doors reflects in my eyes

Fragile pink of young cherry blossoms

And fluttering leaves in brash bright green

To the windowpanes I press my hands

From within the confines of my house

I watch the sky and await the stars

And when evening comes she brings the stars

They stretch awake when she blinks her eyes

And from my dozing at the window of my house

A sudden, stringent longing blossoms

To reach out, reach up, and cup my hands

To catch all of the sky over pastures green

But between the inky night and earthy green

Beneath the soft murmur-song of the stars

The candle displaced by my waking hands

Seeks asylum in the wooden floor with glowering eyes

In the corner, a brand-new flower blossoms

Hungry for the kindling of my house

And in a clean clutch of panic I flee my house

Become a refugee out on the green

While from the windows sprout fiery blossoms

Clawing with unrequited rage at the stars

Which spare no gracious gaze from sightless eyes

Not even for the raw, roasted pink of my hands

And with a deep and sorrowful sting in my hands

I turn with reluctance back to the house

An armada of embers calls out to my eyes

As they sail from the tree down onto the green

And the song that is rising still from the stars

Is a farewell hymn to the cherry blossoms

A throbbing pain roots in my heart and blossoms

Beating in time with the pulse in my hands

Matching tempo and key with the choir of stars

As they herald the cremation of my poor house

As the foundation burns down to the green

As all that I own shrivels black before my eyes

But a sense of strange beauty blossoms as I watch my house

As I soothe my hands on the dew-damp green

As the sparks ascend to join the stars, becoming divine before my eyes