To Dorothy
by Marvin Bell

You are not beautiful, exactly.
You are beautiful, inexactly.
You let the weed grow by the mulberry
And the mulberry grow by the house.
So close, in the personal quiet
of a windy night, it brushes the wall
And sweeps away the day till we sleep.

A child said it and it seemed true:
'Things that are lost are all equal'
But it isn't true. If I lost you,
The air wouldn't move, nor the tree grow.
Someone would pull the weed, my flower.
The quiet wouldn't be yours. If I lost you,
I'd have to ask the grass to let me sleep.