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Drenched with purple,
drenched with dye, my wool,
bind you the wheel-spokes–
turn, turn, turn my wheel!
Drenched with purple,
steeped in the red pulp
of bursting sea-sloes–
turn, turn, turn my wheel!
(Ah did he think
I did not know,
I did not feel–
what wrack, what weal for him:
golden one, golden one,
turn again Aphrodite with the yellow zone,
I am cursed, cursed, undone!
Ah and my face, Aphrodite,
beside your gold,
is cut out of white stone!)
Laurel blossom and the red seed
of the red vervain weed,
burn, crackle in the fire,
burn, crackle for my need!
Laurel leaf, O fruited
branch of bay,
burn, bum away
thought, memory and hurt!
(Ah when he comes,
stumbling across my sill,
will he find me still,
fragrant as the white privet,
or as a bone,
polished in wet and sun,
worried of wild beaks,
and of the whelps' teeth–
worried of flesh,
left to bleach under the sun,
white as ash bled of heat,
white as hail blazing in sheet-lightning,
white as forked lightning
rending the sleet?)
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