She

upon a street of the city of night,
barefoot, she finds herself
cold, tired, lost.

There is a sound, as of distant
heavy hammers
pounding somewhere deep
far underground
like a distant thunder
or the sound of great stones falling
from a great height
down a mountain
a great avalanche
surging, leaping, falling.

she stands
very still
gathering herself
into one place
this place
and this form

It is a new form
a form she has not assumed before
she tries to remember
some other form
if she can see it
in her minds eye
assume it
return
she will return

but no other form
will come to mind
a curtain has been drawn
across
a wall
built
a door
closed
and locked
and she has not the key.

silver blue
black and grey
the city rises around her
beneath the dark and starless sky

shapes familiar
and unfamiliar
timbered houses
and buildings made of glass
glittering
stone
and brick
some towering up
high as the mountains
over which she once flew