Classic Poem

— a dream
we dreamed
each
separately
we two
of love
and of
desire —

that fused
in the night —

in the distance
over
the meadows
by day
impossible —
The city
disappeared
when
we arrived —

A dream
a little false
toward which
now
we stand
and stare
transfixed —

All at once
in the east
rising!

All white!
small
as a flower —

a locust cluster
a shad bush
blossoming

Over the swamps
a wild
magnolia bud —
greenish
white
a northern
flower —

And so
we live
looking —

At night
it wakes
On the black
sky —

a dream
toward which
we love —
at night
more
than a little
false —

We have bred
we have dug
we have figured up
our costs
we have bought
an old rug —

We batter at our
unsatisfactory
brilliance —

There is no end
to desire —

Let us break
through
and go there —

in
vain!
— delectable
amusement:

Milling about —

Money! in
armored trucks —
Two men
walking
at two paces from
each other
their right hands
at the hip —
on the butt of
an automatic —

till they themselves
hold up the bank
and themselves
drive off
for themselves
the money
in an armored car —

For love!
Carefully
carefully tying
carefully

selected
wisps of long
dark hair
wisp
by wisp
upon the stubs
of his kinky wool —
For two hours
three hours
they worked —
until
he coiled
the thick
knot upon
that whorish
head —

Dragged
insensible
upon his face
by the lines —

— a running horse

For love.

Their eyes
blown out —

— for love, for love!

Neither the rain
Nor the storm —
can keep them

for love!
from the daily
accomplishment
of their
appointed rounds —

Guzzling
the creamy foods
while
out of sight
in
the sub-cellar —
the waste fat
the old vegetables
chucked down
a chute
the foulest
sink in the world —

And go
on the out-tide
ten thousand
cots
floating to sea
like weed
that held back
the pristine ships —
And fattened there
an eel
in the water pipe —

No end —

There!

There!

There!

— a dream
of lights
hiding
the iron reason
and stone
a settled
cloud —

City

whose stars
of matchless
splendor —
and
in bright-edged
clouds
the moon —

bring

silence

breathlessly —

Tearful city
on a summer's day
the hard grey
dwindling
in a wall of
rain —

farewell!