Millay's Child
Alkanet was the abortive Cora [her mother] was searching
for. Once she found it in flower in July, she was able to use
it to cause Vincent to miscarry.
--Savage Beauty, Nancy Milford
I speculate on why you poisoned him,
Or her (the it). You drank the alkanet
Your mother picked and brewed, not on a whim,
Or with lips forced apart by need, regret.
No, I suspect it had to do with beauty:
You feared--since Eros, your great muse, resigns
When Wednesday's play turns into Thursday's duty--
An interruption of your lovely lines;
You thought about that dressing table mirror
And saw your famous blush of hair defiled
With gray, a care-worn face, the wrinkles clearer--
Those mortal faults made glaring by a child.
You saw all ruined, the diminished stares,
And ended it, returned to your affairs.
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