VILLANELLE OF MARGUERITE'S

“A little, passionately, not at all?”

She casts the snowy petals on the air:

And what care we how many petals fall!

Nay, wherefore seek the seasons to forestall?

It is but playing, and she will not care,

A little, passionately, not at all!

She would not answer us if we should call

Across the years: her visions are too fair;

And what care we how many petals fall!

She knows us not, nor recks if she enthrall

With voice and eyes and fashion of her hair,

A little, passionately, not at all!

Knee-deep she goes in meadow grasses tall,

Kissed by the daisies that her fingers tear:

And what care we how many petals fall!

We pass and go: but she shall not recall

What men we were, nor all she made us bear:

“A little, passionately, not at all!”

And what care we how many petals fall!