BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME
And one morning while in the woods I stumbled suddenly upon
the thing,
Stumbled upon it in a grassy clearing guarded by scaly oaks
and elms.
And the sooty details of the scene rose, thrusting themselves
between the world and me ...
There was a design of white bones slumbering forgottenly upon
a cushion of ashes.
There was a charred stump of a sapling pointing a blunt finger
accusingly at the sky.
There were torn tree limbs, tiny veins of burnt leaves, and a
• scorched coil of greasy hemp;
A vacant shoe, an empty tie, a ripped shirt, a lonely hat, and
a pair of trousers stiff with black blood.
And upon 'the trampled grass were buttorus, dead matches,
butt-ends of cigars and cigarettes, peanut shells, a drained
gin-flask, and a whore's lipstick;
Scattered traces of tar, restless arrays of feathers, and the
lingering smell of gasoline.
And through the morning air the sun poured yellow surprise into
the eye sockets of a stony skull ...
And while I stood my mind was frozen with a cold pity for the
life that was gone.
The ground gripped my feet and my heart was circled by icy
walls of fear-
The sun died in the sky; a night wind muttered in the grass and
fumbled the leaves in the trees; the woods poured forth
the hungry yelping of hounds; the darkness screamed with
thirsty voices; and the witnesses rose and lived:
The dry bones stirred, rattled, lifted, melting themselves into
my bones.
The gray ashes formed flesh firm and black, entering into my
flesh.
The gin-flask passed from mouth to mouth; cigars and cigarettes
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