RAPE OF THE LEAF
Reading edition
WATERED by light, this done catastrophe Was written in the seed. Who shall condemn My wintry hand for leaping in a tree To tear a tender pattern from its stem? I swear no malice pulled the mental string Of fate’s deflowering arm. I count it grief To contradict the buds, to murder spring In summer’s blood, by this lone crumpled leaf. All shade, all greenness, rolled into a ball, Are prisoners of my palm. And shall I let, Like autumn, vegetation’s empire fall, Or stay the curve of time, so to forget The imminence of God’s great roving eye? Electric of my heart, we cannot shun That fatal stare. But while the buzzards cry, Wear not a scarlet jacket in the sun.