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"Passage"

  Exultation is the going
  Of an inland soul to sea,
  Past the houses -- past the headlands --
  Into deep Eternity --
                         Emily Dickinson


Westwardbound, toward Winslow,
haloed in lime-electric

bathroom glare, the mirror's
tea-green twin stays

locked in her stale stare.
Woman and reflection edge

closer to one another,
scrutinizing, running

fingers through their hair.
There --

under straw-gold strands,
new silver twines,

yellow darkening beneath,
shadows in a summer hayloft,

aspens curving over
willows in November.

She will grow to love
the other color, love

this ferrying of youth
to age, will abandon the mirror,

return to the window, watch
waves brighten with sun

then turn dark, see
seagulls race the boat,

heads empty of destination,
just flying. Just flight.


Jennifer L. Scott
Poetry
Volume CLXXII, Number 6
September 1998

Copyright 1998 by the Modern Poetry Association.
Copyright 1998 by the Daily Poetry Association.
All rights reserved.
http://www.poems.com/


janet paterson - 51/10 - almonte/ontario/canada
http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/
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