Page:Hand in hand; (IA handinhand00kipl).pdf/79



OW the sun beat upon that barren land, And lit the glass and gilt and tawdryness Of "The Saloon": a haunt of wickedness, From whose wide windows blared a jangling band, There was a heap of refuse on the sand, And in community of wretchedness, A woman and a pig, in hunger's stress Rooted among the filth with snout and hand, "Seeking their meat from God." Pitiless Lord, This woman's life Thy gift? Mad, hopeless, wild, Herding with swine: abandoned and defiled: A terror in the sun, a sight abhorred, Our silver coins unheeded near her lay, And the pig nosed them as we turned away.