Sea Poppies

Amber husk

fluted with gold,

fruit on the sand

marked with a rich grain,

5

treasure

spilled near the shrub-pines

to bleach on the boulders:

your stalk has caught root

among wet pebbles

10

and drift flung by the sea

and grated shells

and split conch-shells.

Beautiful, wide-spread,

fire upon leaf,

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what meadow yields

so fragrant a leaf

as your bright leaf?

—
H. D.

Sea Garden, 1916