Wagon pulls inHumans swarm aroundAnxious to get a seatEager to leave the coldElbows stuck in facesTeeth and nail marks on skinAnxious to get a seatEager to leave the coldOld women stumbleOld husbands curseCrippled people grumbleAll anxious to get a seatTired teens have the seatsOld and injured make them leaveMusic playing, books readSeats are taken and shared.
Child, World, Hide and SeekLight floods the gardenThe child's worldSo light and happyAnd in it the child playsHide and seek with friendsSo then the child searches his worldSearches and searchesFor his hiding friendsBut finds insteadThe harshness of growing up
Noise, broken furniture, glass-shardsAll barely miss my headSchool-bags, pencilcases and jackets,Hostages to trade for stolen rubbersFootsteps in the distanceDoor opens with a bangChair-leg scrapes teacher's faceQuiet fills the room"Where is your teacher!?"Guiltily honest faces answer,"Photocopying papers, miss."Door closes; riot returnsShrieking girl jumps out the windowThank God we're on the fourth floorI'm knocked over by a flying bodyYelled obscenities fill the room
The space of the world is immense, before me and around me;If I turn quickly, I am terrified, feeling space surround me;Like a man in a boat on very clear, deep water, space frightens and confounds me.I see myself isolated in the universe, and wonderWhat effect I can have. My hands wave underThe heavens like specks of dust that are floating asunder.I hold myself up, and feel a big wind blowingMe like a gadfly into the dusk, without my knowingWhither or why or even how I am going.So much there is outside me, so infinitelySmall am I, what matter if minutelyI beat my way, to be lost immediately?
Long vast shapes... cooled and flushed through with darkness....Lidless windowsGlazed with a flashy lusterFrom some little pert cafe chirping up like a sparrow.And down among iron gutsPiled silverThrowing gray spatter of light... pale without heat...Like the pallor of dead bodies.
A Wife -- at daybreak I shall be --Sunrise -- Hast thou a Flag for me?At Midnight, I am but a Maid,How short it takes to make a Bride --Then -- Midnight, I have passed from theeUnto the East, and Victory --Midnight -- Good Night! I hear them call,The Angels bustle in the Hall --Softly my Future climbs the Stair,I fumble at my Childhood's prayerSo soon to be a Child no more --Eternity, I'm coming -- Sire,Savior -- I've seen the face -- before!