What was terrible

Here’s Hilda Morley:

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Song of the Terrible

By Hilda Morley

Finally, the fire went up,

                                               when I’d

ceased to worry it,

                                   given up

entirely on it,

            rinsing

my eyes of smoke-tears,         my fingers

of soot-smudges

                        & turned away completely

                        Finally then, it took, & as

the smoke cleared, my head & eyes clearing

with it, my heart lightened,

& I saw the dark-red colored

wine-dark leaf I’d chosen to

save for you, deep-red as

the heart is in its veining & even

shaped like a heart as well:

the darkest red in the center—

but winged, in the form of a message,

                                                           & I was

reminded of the time when, sewing,

I pricked my finger     & the crimson

blood of my heart appeared on

the skin’s surface & I thinking:

I should be making a song for you

like the kind they used for ballads

when they said: Love, I love—I love you

& what was terrible

was simple