Marion Strobel

From “Song Sketches”

WE have a day, we have a night

Which have been made for our delight!

Shall we run, and run, and run

Up the path of the rising sun?

Shall we roll down every hill,

Or lie still

Listening while the whispering leaves

Promise what no one believes?

(The hours poise, breathless for flight, and bright.)

Only a night, only a day—

We must not let them get away:

Don a foolish cap and bell,

For all is well and all is well!

Dance through woods a purple-blue!

Dance into

Lanes that are a hidden stem

Beneath the beauty over them.

(The hours lift their shadow-form, are warm.)

Why do you still stand mute and white?

The day is past, but there is night.

Turn your head, give me your lips—

The darkness slips! The darkness slips.

We could make it hushed and still.

If you will

We could hear, close to the ground

Life—the one authentic sound.

(The hours, as a startled faun, are gone.)