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 Stepping Westward by Denise Levertov 
						What is green in medarkens, muscadine.
 If woman is inconstant,
 good, I am faithful to
 ebb and flow, I fall
 in season and now
 is a time of ripening.
 If her part
 is to be true,
 a north star,
 good, I hold steady
 in the black sky
 and vanish by day,
 yet burn there
 in blue or above
 quilts of cloud.
 There is no savor
 more sweet, more salt
 than to be glad to be
 what, woman,
 and who, myself,
 I am, a shadow
 that grows longer as the sun
 moves, drawn out
 on a thread of wonder.
 If I bear burdens
 they begin to be remembered
 as gifts, goods, a basket
 of bread that hurts
 my shoulders but closes me
 in fragrance. I can
 eat as I go.
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