“I made up words and kept singing how I loved you ….”
– Emily Dickinson to Susan Huntington 1852
A honey bee – unbalanced by
Its golden load – tumbles down
An ivory neck – drowned in balms.
Susie’s gone. Summer stutters – stalls.
Remember when – with hair unpinned –
You scolded Glory’s gossiping –
Pinched Snap for all her primping.
Remember singing – The Water Is Wide –
To Violets I pinned on your breast.
Sipping deep from plum-bloom eyes –
A store of honey for the frost.
At meeting – when the choir hallelooed –
I changed the words for God to Sue.