Frozen Harlequins

Crouching on the silent snow

Touching the concealed grass below

With fingers numbed and stiffened from

Encounters with the frosty death, 

The women lift their vacant eyes

To a mountain eagle in lonely skies, 

Each a frozen mannequin 

Sculpted form of harlequin; 

Fingers bent as if to gnaw

The snow in search of buried dreams.

Or is it a quest for life beneath 

By history and traditions bequeathed,

Beyond the pristine cruel snow –

A possibility of redemption.

The mountain eagle’s lonesome might 

Transfused into frozen flight

Of daring fancies, proud ambitions

Of defiant women cursed and frozen –

New life for Sodom and Gomorrah.*

*Sodom and Gomorrah are cities mentioned in Bible [Book of Genesis], Quran and Hadith. They were comparable to the Garden of Eden but were consumed by brimstone by divine curse and signify impenitent sin, their fall a manifestation of divine retribution. Biblical sources explain that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for their sin, egoism and vanity.