We said the words we meant

Carrie Chang

Chrysanthemum

Vows broken, I hover

In white bankruptcy,

Showered on by asterisks

Of dahlias and exotic confessions,

The  laundry and latter-day

Regrets of violet-light confusion

Wrestling with the mind ;

Lost behemoths, and wild

Nights of lordly meditation,

Beating hair into the philology

Of the pillow, pestering

Willow, what does

God know, in the moonshine,

And how  does one opine

For more melody under

The drossy trees?

Verbatim, like some

Dressier tent, could

Be the lamplight, folly,

We  said the words

we meant.