Stevie Smith: Mother, What Is Man? asked Little Bog-Face

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Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos) in a bog, coastal Washington: photo by Keith Weller (Agricultural Research Service / U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)

Dear Little Bog-Face,
Why are you so cold?
And why do you lie with your eyes shut? --
You are not very old.

I am a Child of this World,
And a Child of Grace,
And Mother, I shall be glad when it is over,
I am Bog-Face.

 

Virgin boreal acid bogs at Brown's Lake Bog, Wayne County, Ohio: photo by U.S. National Park Service, 2004

Stevie Smith: Bog-Face, from Mother, What Is Man? (1950)