Monday, January 16, 2012

Tuesday Poem: published by Enright House in 1992


Emily's Gift


was the metaphor,
there all along at our feet,
their small petaled heads
poking out of the grass
like yellow lights
that say: Slow down.
Stop, and think awhile.
Look at them all,
how they lean for the sun
just like us.

If they're lucky, I thought,
they do their sweet time unmolested,
are never subjected to the fork-tongued weeder,
the blade of the mower, the poisons
that leave you twisted and dying
in the service of civilization.

Here is a white spirit,
my daughter said to me. It was evening
and she was handing me one, old and
fragile; it curled in my palm.
Don't let it blow away just yet, she whispered.
Let's make it last as long as we can.