Red-Haired Mask

Nancy Cardozo

With long-glazed eyes you worship bittersweet shadows;
   You were never told
That these, the only things you saw, would give you
   What you could not hold.

You have not dreamt of man's gods stranger than shadows;
   You do not know
That sunlight has sorrow, that night is only a
   Reincarnation of snow.

And we, the artists who see you - beautiful, haloed,
   Swing through infinity
Pitying the man whose blindness carved you so that
   You could not see.