The Musical Box of Wonders

The musical box of wonders
plays itself round and round,
kaleidoscope panoramas
unlocked when the key is wound.
Processions of tealight shadows
troop round the walls all night:
pageants of elven banners,
Tivolis of delight.

Melodies of lost minstrels
tell of enchanted lands,
palaces in the moonlight,
shipwrecks on silver sand,
porcelain jade princesses,
undersea coral groves,
troubadours by still waters,
ladies who died for love.

Steel tangs tease harmonies out
from the idiophone;
toy carillon releasing
celestial metal tones,
till the rondeaux round the arbor
cease when the movement stops,
and the dance of echoes ends with
the click of the closing box.