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Poem by James Tate

HEAD OF A WHITE WOMAN WINKING

She has one good bumblebee
which she leads about town
on a leash of clover.
It's as big as a Saint Bernard
but also extremely fragile.
People want to pet its long, shaggy coat.
These would be mostly whirling dervishes
out shopping for accessories.
When Lily winks they understand everything,
right down to the particle
of a butterfly's wing lodged
in her last good eye,
so the situation is avoided,
the potential for a cataclysm
is narrowly averted,
and the bumblebee lugs
its little bundle of shaved nerves
forward, on a mission
from some sick, young godhead.

Poem republished with permission from
Worshipful Company of Fletchers (The Ecco Press), © 1994 by James Tate
Book Buzz (sm) Home Page -- The Academy Of American Poets -- More Poems By James Tate

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