Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DEATH'S BLUE-EYED GIRL, by LINDA PASTAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEATH'S BLUE-EYED GIRL, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: When did the garden with its banked flowers
Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips


When did the garden with its banked flowers
start to smell like a funeral chapel,
and the mild breeze passing our foreheads
to feel like the back of a nurse's hand
testing for fever? We used to be
immortal in our ignorance, sending
our kites up for the lightning, swimming
in unknown waters at night and naked.
Death was a kind of safety net to catch us
if we fell too far. Remember Elaine
standing in April, a child on one hip
for ballast, her head distracted with poems?
The magician waved and bowed, showed us his
empty sleeves and she was gone





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