GEORGE CRAIN First Bitterness University of North Dakota Tell me, why did Death take my flower To save his life, While the nine half-breed children In the hut below the mill Ran barefoot thru the snow Regardless of the fearful plague And thrived? Was he too beautiful for earth, You envied us his smile so sweet, And took our longed-for son, You hated us because he was so fair, And would not let him eat, While old drunken Potter Thrown half across the street By a fast-going taxicab, Revived! He was the summit of our love The flower of our two years wedded joy. A brief two years of happiness, And now the pain, Oh God, our baby boy! While down Fish alley Molly Belatt, Cursed her healthy, unwelcome bastard brat. Death took our first-born son; Love could not hold him. The hours we spent in visioning his life Mock and jibe; And every moment of our love and care for him Shrieks out of corners where we run to hide Our bitterness. "They must have needed angels" His mother said. (There is no heaven) You took him, Dead! Yet widow Paulson lay for years Groaning with pain upon her invalid's bed. The Coffin In the Express-House B. A. BOTKIN Columbia University Deaf to the rumble of trucks on the floor, Blind to the bending and straining men Strangely remote, in a corner it lies, What is the aching and heart-breaking day To "Remains of in transit," a box on its way, Awaiting mid ribald laughter and oath. For me in the heat and the dust it is good And check a pilfering craving to reach With a look that is sad and imperious and wise, It chastens and chides my mouth and eyes, Purging me, lifting above the roar To the souls in transit from shore to shore. Finis PAUL DE WITT PAGE Georgetown College I dreamt I knelt beside the couch, oh sweet, From dancing and your face was bleak and gray As if for sorrow of some bitter day In the dead past. The glory of your swift and sun-kissed hair Lay framed about your face, where brooding care Had graven deep And tear-washed lines. Your pale face wore a frown And quivering your eyelids fluttered down You knew me at the end. Through parted lips |