Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE VIREO by KAREN SWENSON

First Line: AN ADAM AND EVE IN THE AUTUMN OF THEIR FALL
Last Line: FLUTTERS A BLESSING ABOUT OUR NETTLED KNEES.
Subject(s): GARDENS & GARDENING; LOVE;

An Adam and Eve in the autumn of their fall
bring order with bramble-scarred hands
to the mildewed roses,
pluck nettles from each other's clothes.

Cropping the carnage of summer's abundance -
black leaves of basil,
tomatoes green or rotting
in rank mats of jointed grass
like marriages that never ripened,
or children who grew wild and weedy -

we plot out a future of spring blooms,
blue pools of grape hyacinths,
daffodils trumpeting beneath the dogwood.
A vireo, come into the garden from his journey,
as though we are innocent of any fall but this,
flutters a blessing about our nettled knees.



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