October 14, 2009

Poppies in October, Sylvia Plath. (and leaves in October)


Even the sun-clouds this morning cannot manage such skirts.

Nor the woman in the ambulance

Whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly ----


A gift,

a love gift

Utterly unasked for

By a sky


Palely and flamily

Igniting its carbon monoxides, by eyes

Dulled to a halt under bowlers.


O my God, what am I

That these late mouths should cry open

In a forest of frost, in a dawn of cornflowers.