Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

Jeremiad

Marx G. Sabel

WHAT avail are these days?

The days come and the days go,

Limping like old men

Over an uneven pathway.

Day follows day,

And each day

Falls over my last memory of you

Like a thin white sheet

Over a dead body.

Day after day—

Sheet upon sheet—

Until now I cannot see

The lines of the dead body underneath.

What avail are these nights?

The nights come and the nights go,

Shambling like heavy negresses

Walking down a steep path

With overflowing baskets on their heads.

Night follows night,

And each night

Falls over my last memory of you,

Like a heavy black sheet over a dead body.

Night follows night,

Sheet falls upon sheet,

Until now I cannot see

The lines of the dead body underneath.

What avail are these days

And these nights,

These halt men, and these

Cumbersome negresses burdened with baskets?

Day after day,

Night after night,

Sheet upon sheet,

Black on white,

Falling over a dead body,

Covering a dead body,

Falling upon and covering my memory of you.