So you fluttered the curtains about my cradle,
Prattling of fields
Before I had had my milk... 
Did I stir on my pillow, making to follow you, Fleet One? 
I—­swaddled, unwinged, like a bird in the egg.

Let be
My dreams that crackle under your breath... 
You have the dust of the world to blow on... 
Do not tag me and dance away, looking back... 
I am too old to play with you,
Eternal Child.

NORTH WIND

I love you, malcontent
Male wind—­
Shaking the pollen from a flower
Or hurling the sea backward from the grinning sand.

Blow on and over my dreams... 
Scatter my sick dreams... 
Throw your lusty arms about me... 
Envelop all my hot body... 
Carry me to pine forests—­
Great, rough-bearded forests... 
Bring me to stark plains and steppes... 
I would have the North to-night—­
The cold, enduring North.

And if we should meet the Snow,
Whirling in spirals,
And he should blind my eyes... 
Ally, you will defend me—­
You will hold me close,
Blowing on my eyelids.

THE DESTROYER

I am of the wind... 
A wisp of the battering wind...

I trail my fingers along the Alps
And an avalanche falls in my wake... 
I feel in my quivering length
When it buries the hamlet beneath...

I hurriedly sweep aside
The cities that clutter our path... 
As we whirl about the circle of the globe... 
As we tear at the pillars of the world... 
Open to the wind,
The Destroyer! 
The wind that is battering at your gates.

LULLABY

Rock-a-by baby, woolly and brown... 
(There’s a shout at the door an’ a big red light...)
Lil’ coon baby, mammy is down... 
Han’s that hold yuh are steady an’ white...

Look piccaninny—­such a gran’ blaze
Lickin’ up the roof an’ the sticks of home—­
Ever see the like in all yo’ days! 
—­Cain’t yuh sleep, mah bit-of-honey-comb?

Rock-a-by baby, up to the sky! 
Look at the cherries driftin’ by—­
Bright red cherries spilled on the groun’—­
Piping-hot cherries at nuthin’ a poun’!

Hush, mah lil’ black-bug—­doan yuh weep. 
Daddy’s run away an’ mammy’s in a heap
By her own fron’ door in the blazin’ heat
Outah the shacks like warts on the street...

An’ the singin’ flame an’ the gleeful crowd
Circlin’ aroun’... won’t mammy be proud! 
With a stone at her hade an’ a stone on her heart,
An’ her mouth like a red plum, broken apart...

See where the blue an’ khaki prance,
Adding brave colors to the dance
About the big bonfire white folks make—­
Such gran’ doin’s fo’ a lil’ coon’s sake!

Hear all the eagah feet runnin’ in town—­
See all the willin’ han’s reach outah night—­
Han’s that are wonderful, steady an’ white! 
To toss up a lil’ babe, blinkin’ an’ brown...