The Poppies in the Garden

The poppies in the garden, they all wear frocks of silk,

Some are purple, some are pink, and others white as milk,

Light, light for dancing in, for dancing when the breeze

Play a little two-step for the blossoms and the bees.

Fine, fine, for dancing in, frilly at the hem,

Oh, when I watch the poppies dance I long to dance like them!

The poppies in the garden have let their silk frocks fall

All about the border paths, but where are they at all?

Here a frill and there a flounce – a rag of silky red,

But not a poppy-girl is left – I think they went to bed.

Gone to bed and gone to sleep; and weary they must be,

For each has left her box of dreams upon the stem for me.

-- Frida Wolfe, 19th c. poet