JOHN JONES'S WIFE


I

AT THE PIANO


I

Love me and leave me; what love bids retrieve me? can June's fist
grasp May?
Leave me and love me; hopes eyed once above me like spring's sprouts
decay;
Fall as the snow falls, when summer leaves grow false--cards packed
for storm's play!


II

Nay, say Decay's self be but last May's elf, wing shifted, eye sheathed--
Changeling in April's crib rocked, who lets 'scape rills locked fast
since frost breathed--
Skin cast (think!) adder-like, now bloom bursts bladder-like,--bloom
frost bequeathed?


III