Chapter IV

My second spring--
passed in a monastery
with plaster walls--in Fiesole
on the hill above Florence.

My second spring--painted
a virgin--in a blue aureole
sitting on a three-legged stool,
arms crossed--
she is intently serious,
and still
watching an angel
with coloured wings
half kneeling before her--
and smiling--the angel's eyes
holding the eyes of Mary
as a snake's holds a bird's.
On the ground there are flowers,
trees are in leaf.