LETTER FROM TOWN: THE ALMOND TREE

YOU promised to send me some violets. Did you
     forget?
  White ones and blue ones from under the orchard
     hedge?
  Sweet dark purple, and white ones mixed for a
     pledge
Of our early love that hardly has opened yet.

Here there’s an almond tree — you have never seen
  Such a one in the north — it flowers on the street,
     and I stand
  Every day by the fence to look up for the flowers
     that expand
At rest in the blue, and wonder at what they mean.

Under the almond tree, the happy lands
  Provence, Japan, and Italy repose,
  And passing feet are chatter and clapping of
     those
Who play around us, country girls clapping their
     hands.

You, my love, the foremost, in a flowered gown,
  All your unbearable tenderness, you with the
     laughter
  Startled upon your eyes now so wide with here —
     after,
You with loose hands of abandonment hanging
     down.