RUBIES
The crimson life-drops from a virgin heart
Pierced to the core by Cupid’s fatal dart.
SAPPHIRES
Lost rays of light that wandered off alone
And down through space were hurled
From that great sapphire sun beyond our own
Pale, puny little world.
TURQUOISE
A baby went to heaven while it slept,
And, waking, missed its mother’s arms, and wept.
Those angel tear-drops, falling earthward through
God’s azure skies, into the turquoise grew.
REFORM
The time has come when men with hearts and brains
Must rise and take the misdirected reins
Of government; too long left in the hands
Of aliens and of lackeys. He who stands
And sees the mighty vehicle of State
Hauled through the mire to some ignoble fate
And makes not such bold protest as he can,
Is no American,
A MINOR CHORD
I heard a strain of music in the street—
A wandering waif of sound. And then straightway
A nameless desolation filled the day.
The great green earth that had been fair and sweet,
Seemed but a tomb; the life I thought replete
With joy, grew lonely for a vanished May.
Forgotten sorrows resurrected lay
Like bleaching skeletons about my feet.