James Hearst Dedication to Carmelita

Scatter the Petals                               

‪By James Hearst                            

‪She sleeps as if the mouths of buds,

‪About to utter their gentle bloom,

‪Suspended breath lest an echo darken

‪The silence where she keeps her room,

‪And sleeps. The warm October sunlight

‪Holds in its hands the troubled year's 

‪Moments of grace before they wither

‪The asters, and leaves rain down like tears.

‪She seems to dream in the early shadow

‪Where a fountain trembles, she does not start

‪At the blackbird's whistle above the cedars

‪Nor the tiptoe steps of my anxious heart.

‪I bow my head as the prayers attend her,

‪But heart, poor innocent, swells to make 

‪A sudden gesture of warning to tell me

‪At the last farewell, she will not wake.

‪    - James Hearst, The Complete Poetry of James Hearst