Page:Slabs of the sunburnt West.djvu/23

Rh Forgive us if the lumber porches and doorsteps Snarl at each other — And the brick chimneys cough in a close-up of Each other's faces — And the ramshackle stairways watch each other As thieves watch — And dooryard lilacs near a malleable iron works Long ago languished In a short whispering purple. And if the alley ash cans Tell the garbage wagon drivers The children play the alley is Heaven And the streets of Heaven shine With a grand dazzle of stones of gold And there are no policemen in Heaven — Let the rag-tags have it their way. And if the geraniums In the tin cans of the window sills Ask questions not worth answering — And if a boy and a girl hunt the sun With a sieve for sifting smoke — Let it pass — let the answer be — "Dust and a bitter wind shall come." Forgive us if the jazz timebeats Of these clumsy mass shadows Moan in saxophone undertones.