Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FRAGMENTS, by JESSIE FARNHAM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FRAGMENTS, by                    
First Line: The way you slipped a ribbon in a book
Last Line: And yet their fragile fragments clog the traffic of my mind.
Subject(s): Past


The way you slipped a ribbon in a book to hold your place,
Your toying with a wisp of hair while contemplating space,
The startled look that cymbals of a storm would always bring,
The way you left unfinished any song that you would sing;
The roguish wink when someone caught you pushing back a yawn,
Your serious demeanor when your chessmate took a pawn,
The way you one time marked the rug with pointed toe to tell
How far the maple stood between the arbor and the well;
Your plucking at my coat sleeve when a crippled urchin passed,
The way you helped a helpless bird into the longer grass,
The genuinely tragic look you tried so hard to hide
If I in earnest haste might push a vending hand aside;
The way I saw your lips press tight then gradually part
As you removed the tissue from a carmine-sugared heart --

All these are past and should grow dim with all such things in kind,
And yet their fragile fragments clog the traffic of my mind.





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