There once was a miller with a daughter as lovely as a grape. He told the king that she could spin gold out of common straw. The king summoned the girl and locked her in a room full of straw and told her to spin it into gold or she would die like a criminal. Poor grape with no one to pick. Luscious and round and sleek. Poor thing. To die and never see Brooklyn. (Rumpelstiltskin)
Anne SextonI find now, swallowing one teaspoon of pain, that it drops downward to the past where it mixes with last yearโs cupful and downward into a decadeโs quart and downward into a lifetimeโs ocean. I alternate treading water and deadmanโs float.
Anne Sexton