"End of April"
Under a cherry tree
I found a robin’s egg,
broken, but not shattered.
I had been thinking of you,
and was kneeling in the grass
among fallen blossoms
when I saw it: a blue scrap,
a delicate toy, as light
as confetti
It didn’t seem real,
but nature will do such things
from time to time.
I looked inside:
it was glistening, hollow,
a perfect shell
except for the missing crown,
which made it possible
to look inside.
What had been there
is gone now
and lives in my heart
where, periodically,
it opens up its wings,
tearing me apart.
—Phillis Levin
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/178.html
Love lost, but still "surviving" in the heart and mind. Still grieving over lost love, still seeing signs of the lost lover. It sounds sad, as if the loss were death, not choice.
ReplyDeleteThe opening of the wings doesn't seem like it would be a good fit for the opposite "tearing me apart". Angel wings? Sadness over death.
The robin's egg as a symbol of rebirth. Although the love is gone, maybe reincarnated in the bird :) or, as the author suggests, in the heart of the loved one.
How about the title, "End of April." Fallen blossoms and gone now both sound like a death. The loss love was April, the narrator's wife or significant other.
ReplyDeleteThe part about the perfect shell, missing crown, and making it possible to look inside. April made it possible to love and loose, and gave the understanding that comes with it and tears the narrator apart.