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From “Primapara”
I HAD a bench in the shadow, back from the arc light | |
| Which burnt in the engine smoke like a coal, and colored | |
| The men’s faces red, so they seemed inflamed with excitement. | |
| Sometimes all the engines would charge near me, with a noise | |
| Which shook the orange-stand there, moved the piles of dark-red oranges. | 5 |
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| I was sleepy with the cold of the winter and the past midnight; | |
| Half asleep I heard the water of the bay; and a man’s voice: | |
| “I remember, in China, when this army was there, | |
| Eighteen years ago, a Captain Abel was worse. | |
| He did not die, either, but went home as you are going.” | 10 |
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| And the young soldier: “What did I say: kill?” | |
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| The sergeant seemed not to hear him, talked on as an old man will | |
| On some subject he has thought about: “I was no recruit then; | |
| I have soldiered for twenty-nine years, in every country. | |
| That is longer than you are old. You’ll go home, and be like | 15 |
| That man with the oranges. Marry, buy land, do well, | |
| And I say nothing: but do not tell me of soldiering. | |
| Talk of hog-killing, farmer. I am old now, | |
And still quicker than your people.”
“Yes, you are a sergeant, | |
| You have better treatment. It is all officers with you. | 20 |
| You have soldiered twenty-nine years: they consider you more. | |
| What do you know of my people? They are quick too— | |
| What is this to talk about now? You are too old; | |
| And I shall be home in two days, as good as any officer.” | |
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| As the men were silent I heard the gulls following a ferryboat, | 25 |
| Or flying in the dark somewhere; and when they ceased crying and turned | |
| Back into the bay, their wings sounded like leaves | |
Blowing from poplar trees down a road.
I thought: “Only gulls; | |
| There are the engines, the red-faced men; this is Oakland Pier. | |
| I am tired now, shall I ever be sorry of the quietness | 30 |
| Of the roads in light snow, the thin grass covered and cold?” | |
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