Aftertaste (undated)

Aftertaste

Emily Dickenson said

That she did not want to be a famous poet;

"Emily," I said,

"Then why did you leave all those poems lying around

For your relatives to find

And scholars to analyze.

"I never thought that my poems

Would be read in freshman English;

My feeling about death,

And the robin outside,

And going to church are known;

What does the town think of me?"

"I was only a spinster at a time

When unmarried women were pariahs;

I needed to say my self to myself,

I wanted those poems to stay on shelves--to fade into Amherst;

After the first few were rejected,

I wrote them as favors to myself."

You did me a favor, Emily

But I read them when I was only sixteen.

(undated)