Wasted Radiance, and: Chrysanthemums, and: Bumblestaria

THREE POEMS by Paul Boswell WASTED RADIANCE The moon has no known business But to bounce an enchanting Tincture of sunshine Into the world's nights. Eons before the waters spawned The most ancient eyes Moon light embellished The blind earth With wasted radiance. CHRYSANTHEMUMS Like snow storms in July, Or like funerals where they play Here comes the Bride Chrysanthemums are untimelyPreposterous ! When the ivy has turned red And deposited separately The red leaves and the red stems; And the oaks have filled the streets With brown paper; And the grass is gone; And the whole spring-summer-autumn Syndrome of growings Has irrevocably called it quits; These lunatic chrysanthemums, Bright as daffodils, Having November all to themselves, And speaking for the whole vegetable kingdom, Poke out their sassy golden tongues In a silent Bronx cheer At Winter. 35 BUMBLESTARIA The Boston ivy, a vertical sweet potato patch That ripples the top two thirds Of the alley wall, Came with the house when we bought it— And may have been the reason why we bought it. But the Wistaria, That screens-in the back porch, Was transplanted as a six-inch sprout From Delaware to the District of Columbia Twenty years ago, And was my wife's idea. Each May, between her birthday and mine, The Wistaria is a lavender cascade From the second-floor porch railing To the ground; And it also makes a grandiose lilac-colored fountain Of the skeleton of the Mimosa tree That died coated with ice Several winters ago. The family looks fondly Forward and backward to This flamboyant fortnight every year. But the burghers who are really turned on Are the multitudes of big Black-bellied bumblebees In ochre velvet vests Who assemble from God knows where In May-Day mobilization For hymenopterous rituals In black and gold—and lavender. 36 ON THE WAY Two Berea students run up the hill to Woods Penniman Building following a field hockey practice. A man and his mule walking down the highway in the Red Lick Valley near Berea. 37 ...