344. Bessie Bobtail by James Stephens. Monroe, Harriet, ed. 1917. The New Poetry: An Anthology

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

344. Bessie Bobtail

By James Stephens


AS down the street she wambled slow,
She had not got a place to go:
She had not got a place to fall
And rest herself—no place at all.
She stumped along and wagged her pate	5
And said a thing was desperate.

Her face was screwed and wrinkled tight
Just like a nut—and, left and right,
On either side she wagged her head
And said a thing; and what she said	10
Was desperate as any word
That ever yet a person heard.

I walked behind her for a while
And watched the people nudge and smile.
But ever as she went she said,	15
As left and right she swung her head,
—“Oh, God He knows,” and “God He knows:”
And surely God Almighty knows.