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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SCULPTURE by JANE MILLER

First Line: IF THERE IS AN END
Last Line: WHITTLED MY SLEEP WITH A RASP.
Subject(s): ENVY; GRIEF; MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS; SUMMER; SORROW; SADNESS;

If there is an end
to the sadness of mothers, sometimes it is in summer:
a few couples pass with their arms around each other....
@3Wait!@1 I want to say to them, @3stay@1. I'd rather have them
a long time tempting me with their shadows
than a daughter stalking the halls
trimming my heart out of our portraits.
The other child, angelic
encumbrance whom I asked to love:
I too had a summer but scorched myself
in front of its paper landscapes. Almost ghosts,
the trees responded, though only a few. I lolled
all day at the window, insubstantially
over her. No one suspected
frustration, my bride,
whittled my sleep with a rasp.



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