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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Carolyn Hillman

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Wreaths

Carolyn Hillman

From “Two Christmas Poems”

RED wreaths

Hang in my neighbor’s window,

Green wreaths in my own.

On this day I lost my husband.

On this day you lost your boy.

On this day

Christ was born.

Red wreaths,

Green wreaths

Hang in our windows,

Red for a bleeding heart,

Green for grave grass.

Mary, mother of Jesus,

Look down and comfort us.

You too knew passion;

You too knew pain.

Comfort us,

Who are not brides of God,

Nor bore God.

On Christmas day

Hang wreaths,

Green for spent passion,

Red for new pain.