Page:Anthology of Magazine Verse (1921).djvu/138
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Through chink and cranny, piercing the midnight.
The dry husks rattle, and his shuffling feet
Keep time to what he sings—an elusive tune,
Husky and monotonous and sweet,
Scarce audible, so softly does he croon
To keep away the evil eye:
Everybody
Who is livin'
Got to die.
Across the evening fields the setting sun
Richly intones toil done.
The home-bound negroes idle in the lanes,
Gossiping as they go; coarse laughter falls
On the resonant air; from a far field cat-calls
Float over, and a banjo's strains.
Shucking corn in the darkness, Scipio in reply
Sits and sings his mournful, husky stave:
Wid a silver spade
You kin dig my grave;
Everybody
Who is livin'
Got to die.
The dry husks rattle, and his shuffling feet
Keep time to what he sings—an elusive tune,
Husky and monotonous and sweet,
Scarce audible, so softly does he croon
To keep away the evil eye:
Everybody
Who is livin'
Got to die.
Across the evening fields the setting sun
Richly intones toil done.
The home-bound negroes idle in the lanes,
Gossiping as they go; coarse laughter falls
On the resonant air; from a far field cat-calls
Float over, and a banjo's strains.
Shucking corn in the darkness, Scipio in reply
Sits and sings his mournful, husky stave:
Wid a silver spade
You kin dig my grave;
Everybody
Who is livin'
Got to die.
Poetry, A Magazine of VerseJosephine Pinckney
IN THE DELTA
The river country's wide and flat
And blurred ash-blue with sun,
And there all work is dreams come true,
All dreams are work begun.
And blurred ash-blue with sun,
And there all work is dreams come true,
All dreams are work begun.
The silted river made for us
The black and mellow soil
And taught us as we conquered him
Courage and faith and toil.
The black and mellow soil
And taught us as we conquered him
Courage and faith and toil.
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