122 by Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson's desk, in her Amherst, Massachusetts home. Photograph by Benjamin Norman of the New York Times (2017).

 122

These are the days when Birds come back -

A very few - a Bird or two -

To take a backward look.

These are the days when skies resume

The old - old sophistries of June -

A blue and gold mistake.

Oh fraud that cannot cheat the Bee.

Almost thy implausibility

Induces my belief.

Till ranks of seeds their witness bear -

And softly thro' the altered air

Hurries a timid leaf.

Oh sacrament of summer days,

Oh Last Communion in the Haze -

Permit a child to join -

Thy sacred emblems to partake -

Thy consecrated bread to take

And thine immortal wine!