SCRUB
14 lines✦
f I grow bitterly,Like a gnarled and stunted tree,Bearing harshly of my youthPuckered fruit that sears the mouth;If I make of my drawn boughsAn inhospitable house,Out of which I never pryTowards the water and the sky,Under which I stand and hideAnd hear the day go by outside;It is that a wind too strongBent my back when I was young,It is that I fear the rainLest it blister me again.
✦