Delerium

angeloangelo

Delerium

Such green, such green,

this apple-, pea- and celadon,

this emerald and pine and lime

unsheathed to make

a miser weep, to make his puny

bunions shrink; these seas

and seas of peony, these showy

tons of rose

to urge a musted monk disrobe,

an eremitic nun unfold;

such breathy, breathy moth

and wasp, such gleeful,

greedy bee to bid

the bully hearts of cops

and bosses sob,

to tell a stubby root unstub, a rusted

hinge unrust, the slug unsalt;

to stir the fusted

lungs to brim, the skin to sting,

the dormant,

tinning tongue to singe and hymn.

Hailey Leithauser

The strange yellow-green of spring is everywhere. "Such green, such green." This poem makes me smile. The extravagances of colour that catapult into effusions of musical language  - it's like a word-dance. Run to the dictionary quick! Musted? Eremetic? Fusted? Get your mind and mouth around those! This is wordplay, Leithauser loves words. Sheer delight, if you ask me.