The Water Butt - Solveig von Schoultz

The water butt by the corner
has an eye that I love.
In the morning it laughs
when the aconites borrow its mirror
adorning themselves for the butterflies,
in the heat it lies shadowy, out of reach,
talking to the honeysuckle’s leaves,
sometimes it plays with the children
curling pygmy waves for their bark boats,
but only at night, when children and grown-ups are gone,
does the eye come wide awake
grow clear and listen,
open itself to the darkness above the pines,
in a cool lap girding
Aldebaran.

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Solveig von Schoultz (1907 - 1996) Sweden
Translated by David McDuff
Aldebaran is an orange giant star located about 65 light years away in the zodiac constellation of Taurus