27. How Yesterday Looked

THE HIGH horses of the sea broke their white riders

On the walls that held and counted the hours

The wind lasted.

Two landbirds looked on and the north and the east

Looked on and the wind poured cups of foam

And the evening began.

The old men in the shanties looked on and lit their

Pipes and the young men spoke of the girls

For a wild night like this.

The south and the west looked on and the moon came

When the wind went down and the sea was sorry

And the singing slow.

Ask how the sunset looked between the wind going

Down and the moon coming up and I would struggle

To tell the how of it.

I give you fire here, I give you water, I give you

The wind that blew them across and across,

The scooping, mixing wind.