A Pair of Posies for John Skelton
Marguerite
Reject the rose:
Platonic nose
The wind blows,
Its rosy clenches,
Soft phalanges,
Green revenges;
Without charity,
Its plum parity
A little arty -
Plucked sparrow,
All marrow
And no harrow:
Reject the rosel
Rose
Let me enter,
Pale to a sun's center,
Pale as winter,
Gold as wheat,
Fringed, discreet
Marguerite]
Patient power
Along this flower
The unkept hour
Greens to gold-
But cannot hold
For long the cold
Bleaching. How,
Lapped like snow
And even now,
The petals ice,
Are old. O Christ,
Margaret, twice
We burn: burn center
Gold-and winter
Cold. Let me enter!
Structure
36 lines · 5 stanzas