Portrait By a Neighbor - Edna St. Vincent Millay

Frederick Carl Frieseke · Sunbathing

 "Before she has her floor swept
Or her dishes done,
Any day you'll find her
A-sunning in the sun!

It's long after midnight
Her hey's in the lock,
And you never see her chimney smoke
Till past ten o' clock!

She digs in her garden
With a shovel and a spoon,
She weeds her lazy lettuce
By the light of the moon.

She walks up the walk
Like a woman in a dream
She forgets she borrowed butter
And pays you back cream!


Her lawn looks like a meadow,
And if she mows the place
She leaves the clover standing
And the Queen Anne's lace!

One day I'll mime Edna St. Vincent Millay leaning out from a Harlem apartment window to water a bedraggled pot of daisies.  I'll possess the gardening skill of a somber forest-child whose fingertips coax open blooms of night phlox and moonflower. In the meantime, I guzzle sun tea, drop the steeped bags and mint leaves into the bottom of each hole, and plant lilies by solar garden lights. There's no moon tonight. So much for poetry, eh?

From PhotoHuntress's LiveJournal

From Jame Conception (I think) on a t-shirt