10 Years After

The Botticellian Trees William Carlos Williams
The alphabet of
the trees

is fading in the
song of the leaves

the crossing
bars of the thin

letters that spelled
winter

and the cold
have been illumined

with
pointed green

by the train and sun --
The strict suimple

principles of
straighjtht branches

are being modsified
by pinched-out

ifs of color, devout
conditions

the smiles of love--
. . . . . .

until the stript
sentences

move as a woman's
limbs under cloth

and praise from secrecy
quick with desire

love's ascendancy
in summer --

In summer the song
sings itself

above the muffled words --