Ballad of Another Ophelia

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h4>BALLAD OF ANOTHER OPHELIA</h4> Oh, the green glimmer of apples in the orchard,<br/> Lamps in a wash of rain,<br/> Oh, the wet walk of my brown hen through the stackyard,<br/> Oh, tears on the window pane!<br/> <br/> Nothing now will ripen the bright green apples,<br/> Full of disappointment and of rain,<br/> Brackish they will taste, of tears, when the yellow dapples<br/> Of Autumn tell the withered tale again.<br/> <br/> All round the yard it is cluck, my brown hen,<br/> Cluck, and the rain-wet wings,<br/> Cluck, my marigold bird, and again<br/> Cluck for your yellow darlings.<br/> <br/> For the grey rat found the gold thirteen<br/> Huddled away in the dark,<br/> Flutter for a moment, oh the beast is quick and keen,<br/> Extinct one yellow-fluffy spark.<br/> <br/> Once I had a lover bright like running water,<br/> Once his face was laughing like the sky;<br/> Open like the sky looking down in all its laughter<br/> On the buttercups&mdash;and buttercups was I.<br/> <br/> What then is there hidden in the skirts of all the blossom,<br/> What is peeping from your wings, oh mother hen?<br/> 'T is the sun who asks the question, in a lovely haste for wisdom&mdash;<br/> What a lovely haste for wisdom is in men?<br/> <br/> Yea, but it is cruel when undressed is all the blossom,<br/> And her shift is lying white upon the floor,<br/> That a grey one, like a shadow, like a rat, a thief, a rain-storm<br/> Creeps upon her then and gathers in his store.<br/> <br/> Oh, the grey garner that is full of half-grown apples,<br/> Oh, the golden sparkles laid extinct&mdash;!<br/> And oh, behind the cloud sheaves, like yellow autumn dapples,<br/> Did you see the wicked sun that winked?<br/> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />