Winter Sonnet

What was the twilight wish, the talisman,
That as a child you took to bed with you?
After the nightlight was dimmed, and the warm room
Yours to figure with visions, what was the view,
More than a magic lantern’s beauty, you saw?
Castle, moat, yourself as hero? While
Snow hissed at the window, and below, the hee-haw
Of the drunken party, tinkling glasses, the guile
Of perfume floating up the stairs, you heard
The snow. Warm in your bed, the blankets drawn
Over your eyes, you wandered, wanton as a bird,
To Arabian splendors. And now, the vision gone,
Still through the falling snowflakes you recall
Girls’ voices, beyond Arabia, laughing in the hall.