Monday, November 21, 2011

Poppies in October

red poppies against a blue sky

by Sylvia Plath  


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.

from: Collected Poems. Copyright © 1960.

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