Three ladies
drink tea on shadow-woven lawns,
throwing their hands elegantly
(bones, brocades, bonnets)
knuckles bamboo on strings
(warp, widow, woof)
fingers then tightening toward faces
to be controlled again,
by tea-cup rings, against mismanagement
(knit, caught, knot).
They rise with the shush
of morning silks on grasses,
adagio cantabile
between the clipped hedges.
One by one
they destroy the order,
dropping their crewel-work
intended for other tea-tables.
Kneeling,
their skirts settle around them
(tightening satin circles)
Their necks break forward,
The mouths against the weeds
The jaws broken with lust,
The eye crushed out.
Scripps College, 1968