The Letter

written by


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Little cramped words scrawling all over
  the paper
Like draggled fly's legs,
What can you tell of the flaring moon
Through the oak leaves?
Or of my uncertain window and the
  bare floor

Spattered with moonlight?
Your silly quirks and twists have nothing
  in them
Of blossoming hawthorns,
And this paper is dull, crisp, smooth,
  virgin of loveliness
Beneath my hand.

I am tired, Beloved, of chafing my heart
  against
The want of you;
Of squeezing it into little inkdrops,
And posting it.
And I scald alone, here, under the fire
Of the great moon.


© Amy Lowell