Eufina C. Tompkins

A CABIN, a cow and an apple-tree—

These three things petition me;

Neighborly close, and mine, all mine:

The cabin covered with eglantine,

Cow dark red with white spots over,

Up to her knees in honey clover;

Apple-tree with a bird’s nest in,

Made where the sunlight faeries spin

Silks for shade and cover.

I hear them trilling—the birds—
“Oh, yes—

You hear the cries of the street in stress,

And a saffron guard with a traffic star

Clutches and holds you where you are,

Or you would be in a pretty mess

Under a motor-car!”

Thus my tiresome old sub-self,

Tumbling down from her closet shelf,

Packing her fardel of things forgot

Saving me whether I will or not:

“It is wiser to dream all snug in bed,

Bed-posts standing foot and head,

Roof-tree hiding the still white cry

Of a midnight moon that is going by,

Warding away the eerie spell

From the windows close where the dreamers lie;

While the velvet tread

Of the Dark comes soft to the mimic dead,

And sweet as a sigh of Israfel.”

But what can one do if the visions snare

In the market-place when the world is there?

What can one do to save her soul

When without summons the films unroll?

Cabin covered with eglantine,

Cherry red of the milken kine,

An apple-tree, and in its crest

A robin’s song and a robin’s nest….