Page:Anthology of Modern Slavonic Literature in Prose and Verse by Paul Selver.djvu/294

270

Came forth then the first tortured mortal Unto the radiant sheen of shifting vapours. From mists the vagrant hobbled over the pastures Slipped his bloodstained tatters over his feet Livid with foulness and canker, in which Death squatted, He plunged his running wounds therein And the sky-line grew dim and dim afar, Thickening mists in the fens, where a bird faltered, Canker of grave yards, stench of mortal remains Wafted from the banks a burial requiem

Through gulleys leaked foul contagions, Mouldering in quagmires, from the rended lining Like ulcers they burst forth therein, meadows, Water-logged marsh-land they lulled there to slumber, In the wake of the wind sobbed a burial requiem

Here it floated into the city cess-pool Windows Hurled their sheds of light upon its surface And magic of homesteads was trailing eerily On the wrinkled waters And trees dipped their sickly green, garlands loosened from cornices Straggled down in the tarnished mirror of the waters.