Here
with a quick movement of her scissors
she snipped the spray of traveller's joy

and it fell to the ground.


As it fell,
surely some light came in too,
surely one could penetrate a little farther into her being.


Her mind

then

was filled with tenderness and regret...



To cut an overgrown branch saddened her


because it had once lived



and life was dear to her.





*

From: "The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection", by Virginia Woolf.