Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/436

428 I am a dance—Play up, there! the fit is whirling
 * me fast!

I am the ever-laughing—it is new moon and twilight, I see the hiding of douceurs—I see nimble ghosts
 * whichever way I look,

Cache, and cache again, deep in the ground and sea,
 * and where it is neither ground or sea.

Well do they do their jobs, those journeymen divine, Only from me can they hide nothing, and would not
 * if they could,

I reckon I am their boss, and they make me a pet
 * besides,

And surround me and lead me, and run ahead when
 * I walk,

To lift their cunning covers, to signify me with
 * stretched arms, and resume the way;

Onward we move! a gay gang of blackguards! with
 * mirth-shouting music and wild-flapping pennants
 * of joy!

I am the actor, the actress, the voter, the politician, The emigrant and the exile, the criminal that stood
 * in the box,

He who has been famous, and he who shall be famous
 * after to-day,

The stammerer, the well-formed person, the wasted
 * or feeble person.

I am she who adorned herself and folded her hair
 * expectantly,

My truant lover has come, and it is dark.