Pauline B. Barrington. The Pomegranate Bush. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

The Pomegranate Bush

By Pauline B. Barrington


WHEN she was alive
She moved like a frail ghost,
The spirit of a wraith.
Her chiffons trailed about her
Like spirals of smoke.	5
The wail in her voice was gray and pining
Like the sea after twilight.

She died and was buried.
Now, she has returned—a woman
Among us.	10
She passed down the street
Wrapped in a Spanish shawl,
Flaming with hybiscus
And amber roses:
The silk fringe caught in a small, green bush;	15
She stooped and swayed,
With long pointed fingers disengaged
The silk fringe of the shawl.

I closed my eyes,
So poignant was the grace	20
Of her swaying and stooping.
When I opened them again,
She had gone.
Up and down the street
I looked—	25
She had disappeared!

But the small green bush,
Where her long, pointed fingers
Disengaged the silk fringe
Of the shawl,	30
Was covered with vermilion flowers
Like her mouth—
A flare of color
In the sun.