Yellow Leaves

Poem 'Matins' from Louise Glück (1943-2023):

"I see it is with you as with the birches:
I am not to speak to you
in the personal way. Much
has passed between us. Or
was it always only
on the one side? I am
at fault, at fault, I asked you
to be human--I am no needier
than other people. But the absence
of all feeling, of the least
concern for me--I might as well go on
addressing the birches,
as in my former life: let them
do their worst, let them
bury me with the Romantics,
their pointed yellow leaves
falling and covering me."

P.S. This poem is from her book 'The Wild Iris' (1992). The picture 'Birch Forest in The Morning Sunlight' is from RF Library Wall Murals.