Witter Bynner. Crystal. Alfred Kreymborg, ed. 1920. Others for 1919

Alfred Kreymborg, ed. Others for 1919. 1920.

Crystal

By Witter Bynner


BETWEEN your laughter and mine
Lies the shadow of the sword of change.

Yours is innocent.
Mine knows.

You had sat abstracted	5
By the touch of dreaming strings
Of an old guitar—
When in the centre of the room
A crystal dish cracked for no reason.

Then you darted with joy to the fragments,	10
Like a fish to a crumb,
And held between your thumbs and your fingers
Two pieces of laughter.