| |
| IN the cool of the night time | |
| The clocks pick off the points | |
| And the mainsprings loosen. | |
| They will need winding. | |
| One of these days… | 5 |
| they will need winding. | |
| |
| Rabelais in red boards, | |
| Walt Whitman in green, | |
| Hugo in ten-cent paper covers, | |
| Here they stand on shelves | 10 |
| In the cool of the night time | |
| And there is nothing… | |
| To be said against them… | |
| Or for them… | |
| In the cool of the night time | 15 |
| And the clocks. | |
| |
| A man in pigeon-gray pyjamas. | |
| The open window begins at his feet | |
| And goes taller than his head. | |
| Eight feet high is the pattern. | 20 |
| |
| Moon and mist make an oblong layout. | |
| Silver at the man’s bare feet. | |
| He swings one foot in a moon silver. | |
| And it costs nothing. | |
| |
| One more day of bread and work. | 25 |
| One more day … so much rags… | |
| The man barefoot in moon silver | |
| Mutters “You” and “You” | |
| To things hidden | |
| In the cool of the night time, | 30 |
| In Rabelais, Whitman, Hugo, | |
| In an oblong of moon mist. | |
| |
| Out from the window … prairielands. | |
| Moon mist whitens a golf ground. | |
| Whiter yet is a limestone quarry. | 35 |
| The crickets keep on chirring. | |
| |
| Switch engines of the Great Western | |
| Sidetrack box cars, make up trains | |
| For Weehawken, Oskaloosa, Saskatchewan; | |
| The cattle, the coal, the corn, must go | 40 |
| In the night … on the prairielands. | |
| |
| Chuff-chuff go the pulses. | |
| They beat in the cool of the night time. | |
| Chuff-chuff and chuff-chuff… | |
| These heartbeats travel the night a mile | 45 |
| And touch the moon silver at the window | |
| And the bones of the man. | |
| It costs nothing. | |
| |
| Rabelais in red boards, | |
| Whitman in green, | 50 |
| Hugo in ten-cent paper covers, | |
| Here they stand on shelves | |
| In the cool of the night time | |
| And the clocks. | |
| |
