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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IMMENSE VIRGIN GIRLS by JANE MILLER

First Line: OPEN THE DOOR WHERE THEY KNOCK SIGHING
Last Line: IMMENSE VIRGIN GIRLS!
Subject(s): GIRLS; VIRGINITY; VESTALS;

Open the door where they knock sighing.

It's a humid receptive morning.
All in voile dresses they enter:
a receiving line of obsessions,
twelve sorrel horses.

They puff their gestures of regret,
sorry they aren't marmalade,
though they are, nor sponges,
wet with consolation.

Why do they breathe together like a bouquet?

Why do they amuse themselves
with mother-of-pearl necklaces?

Where did they sleep
that they awoke so many memories?

Why, with violence,
do they throw off their pretty wreaths?
Twelve offers and not one would renounce you.

Look at their tender repetitions,
the blue eyes of their reputations.
Immense virgin girls!



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