Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.
EldersLouise Bogan
From “Beginning and End”
A
And the elders, their flower light as broken snow upon the bush,
Repeat the circle of the moon.
Black fruit breaks from the white flower.
The black-wheeled berries turn
Weighing the boughs over the road.
There is no harvest.
Heavy to withering, the black wheels bend
Ripe for the mouths of chance lovers,
Or birds.
The elders sag over the powdery road-bank,
As though they bore, and it were too much,
The seed of the year beyond the year.