“Such a nasty woman.” —The Imminent
President of the United States, Oct. 2016
.
In Mind
There's in my mind a woman
of innocence, unadorned but
fair-featured, and smelling of
apples and grass. She wears
a utopian smock or shift, her hair
is light brown and smooth, and she
is kind and very clean without
ostentation—
but she has
no imagination.
And there's a
turbulent moon-ridden girl
or old woman, or both,
dressed in opals and rags, feathers
and torn taffeta,
who knows strange songs—
but she is not kind.
.
by Denise Levertov
from No More Masks
Anchor Books, 1973
.