Crane

written by


« Reload image

I KNOW you, Crane:
I, too, have waited,
Waited until my heart
Melted to little pools around my feet!

Comer in the morning ere the crows,
Shunner,
Searcher
Something find for me!
The pennies that were laid upon the eyes
Of old, wise men I knew.
;;;;
The Little Fox 
THAT sidling creature is a little Fox:
Like other canine he is leashed and led;
He goes upon the sidewalk; houses tower;
Men trample; horses rear; he drags his leash.

Did not I
Once know a lad from Irrus where they leave
Mittens for foxes; where they invite
A fox to a child's christening; where they have
Foxes as gossips to their boys and girls?

Would that a lad from Irrus now was here
To tell his gossip that a human creature
Has heart for him, and fain would cover up
His bowels of dread, and find some way to bring
His rainy hills around him, the soft grass,
Darkness of ragged hedges, and his earth
The black, damp earth under the roots of trees!
Would that a lad from Irrus now was here
Where houses tower and where horses rear!

© Padraic Colum