Fox Footprints/May

by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

For works with similar titles, see May.

May

Adapted from the Japanese

In the morning I heard the song of a frog turned silentBy a petal dropped on his mouth from the cherry trees.

At noon there was sun and stillness and cloudless skyAnd the breath from the butterflies' wings was the only breeze.

At sunset the crows sat sombrely cawing aloudWatching the sun go in scarlet flame from their sight,

And the ghosts of foxes played lightly under the moonWhere my narcissus beds shone like frost in the night.