Note to Clotho, Lachesis, & Atropos

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