The Hole in My Curtain
It is because of the hole in my curtain.
I have stared through the torn space
Into Life's tortured face
As she leaned low and treadled her loom,
Watching, watching for the inevitable doom.
And I have seen the haggard shadows flit
Over the tapestries she wove, bit by bit,
Feverishly, her lips shrieking gay lies;
And always the tired song in her endless eyes.
I have watched the Form with his weary
cynical face,
His pale smile, his definite, measured pace,
Gliding forward and gliding back like a
thing condemned
And calmly slitting Life's woven cloths
from end to end.
Into Life's tortured face
As she leaned low and treadled her loom,
Watching, watching for the inevitable doom.
And I have seen the haggard shadows flit
Over the tapestries she wove, bit by bit,
Feverishly, her lips shrieking gay lies;
And always the tired song in her endless eyes.
I have watched the Form with his weary
cynical face,
His pale smile, his definite, measured pace,
Gliding forward and gliding back like a
thing condemned
And calmly slitting Life's woven cloths
from end to end.
And they have wondered that I should laugh!
Marvelled at the potent wines I quaff.
Marvelled that I should dance on their God's
dried flesh,
Shape a lute from a bone of His; weave a mesh
Of mirthless melody; that I should find Sin fair,
Circle her body and sleep in her odorous hair.
They have marvelled that I should mock the day,
Throw my veil over the sun and smile at Fate's
old play;
Lead my soul down the ribald, flowered path.
They have marvelled . . . they have wondered
that I should laugh.
Marvelled at the potent wines I quaff.
Marvelled that I should dance on their God's
dried flesh,
Shape a lute from a bone of His; weave a mesh
Of mirthless melody; that I should find Sin fair,
Circle her body and sleep in her odorous hair.
They have marvelled that I should mock the day,
Throw my veil over the sun and smile at Fate's
old play;
Lead my soul down the ribald, flowered path.
They have marvelled . . . they have wondered
that I should laugh.
I have looked too long through the hole
in my curtain.
in my curtain.