Time II

I can do what I like
in hot May - the garden
has the whole summer
to taunt me, right through
to September
when it gives up and goes away

right now I am defiant,
reading, of kingship
and damask crimson skirts
but I know that time
passes easily to the
ancient earth, and the
garden, in whatever
state of desertion,
will outlast me
with vigorous and endless births

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