from Jerusalem Sonnets (27)

Three dark buds for the Trinity 
On one twig I found in the lining of my coat 

Forgotten since I broke them from the tree 
That grows opposite the RSA building

At the top of Vulcan Lane — there I would lay down my parka 
On the grass and meditate, cross-legged; there was a girl 

Who sat beside me there;
She would hold a blue flower at the centre of the bullring

While the twigs on the tree became black 
And then slowly green again — she was young — if I had said, 

‘Have my coat; have my money’ —
She would have gone away; but because I gave her nothing

She came again and again to share that nothing
Like a bird that nest in the open hand.

--James K. Baxter (1926-1972) New Zealand poet and teacher