Chickory and Daisies

6 0 00

Chickory and Daisies

I

Lift your flowers

on bitter stems

chickory!

Lift them up

out of the scorched ground!

Bear no foliage

but give yourself

wholly to that!

Strain under them

you bitter stems

that no beast eats⁠—

and scorn greyness!

Into the heat with them:

cool!

luxuriant! sky-blue!

The earth cracks and

is shriveled up;

the wind moans piteously;

the sky goes out

if you should fail.

II

I saw a child with daisies

for weaving into the hair

tear the stems

with her teeth!