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Ruby's Song


Unconvolute the style
In which she should be sung
Who’s born in the summer, and young.
Write down the smile,
Say, as readily as you see it rise
On her lips, in her eyes.

For one so clear, so fresh,
So tender and so free
Requires her same simplicity,
Whom toil and mesh
Can’t take. Who’d catch her spring, then, must unlock
The coils of their baroque

That gilt and lilies shroud,
The frayed and flared device,
Fantastic eloquence of ice
And icy cloud.
Let the equinoctial moon and sun
Like milk and honey run

Through lines as fine and strong
As make her form and face.
So may my Maker give me grace
To make that song
That holds the movement of her melody
As she has captured me.


John Gibbens, from The Promise

 

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