Variation 9

VII

Frog faces, frog lust, frog bellies in the dust,

till unexpected flame gave you another name:

( there’s the siren wail again, May 15;

by the clock, near 6, that’s 4 by the sun ):

frog faces, frog lust, frog bellies in the dust

of the Last Judgement Day :

when winter-fog is gone, the frogs sit in the sun,

and now you can see strawberry-leaves on a crown, a lion, a unicorn:

— H.D., from Last Winter, 1950

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