< Page:The Poet in the Desert.djvu
This page needs to be proofread.

See, the night has shrunk away over the edge of the

Desert ; The coyote has ceased from his lamentations ; The hill-tops are touched with pink, And presently, like a fiery harlequin. The sun will vault over the purple barriers ; And shepherds will call to their woolly flocks.

TRUTH: So shall the Revolution come. And Freedom, the dawn of the new day.

POET:

I rejoice in the silent consolations of the Desert

And am soothed by the tenderness of the morning-breeze,

But what of the accusing groans

From the prisons which Man has builded.

Wherein his victims die the living death?

I rejoice in the aromatic smell of the sage-brush after the

rain; The circling of hawks and buzzards ; The cooing of plaintive doves.

And complaining of little cuckoo-owls from their burrows. These things, and more, infinitely, Penetrate my heart with gladness; But shall my soul be satisfied if I alone am glad, And not my brother?

Shall I be content to see the laughing nymphs Spread a carpet to invite the gleaming feet of Spring, The twinkling feet of shy, persuasive, mystic, rhythmic

Spring? Or, if I fly from this Desert to the mountains. What to me is the hushed, persistent laughter of summer

woods. Glimpses of brown-armed dryads, lying beneath the oaks, Rejoicing in the coquetry of the trees? Or all the winds of Freedom,

64

    This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.