Didn't You Ever Search For Another Star?

​

By Alfred Starr Hamilton

 

I.

did you say

August ponds

ought to have

been surrounded

by September fences?

 

but did you say

September fences

ought to have

been climbed over

by October peoples?

 

what did you say

for October padlocks

that ought never to have

been attached moreover

to November handcuffs?

 

II.

You'll remember us for our dark Hungarian laughter

That tickled when it laughed, that dug at the limelight

​

Why, I'll send you a dark silver Hungarian coin

From the mines that never saw the light of day yet

 

Why, I'll send you a dime's worth of Hungarian damage

That has been done to a cave that is full of Rhapsody

 

Why, I'll send you a silver key to the cave of despair

I'll send you a violet tonight, I'll send you a silver sword

 

I'll send you a silver hammer that'll hammer night and day

I'll send you a pail-ful of our kinds of blue revolutionary stars.

 

III.

Who are you? Weren't you their prisoner in the sedge dark?

Where has been your search for freedom?

Will you count the trees again in these dense woods

Wherever you have been tonight?

Will you look backwards where you have been?

And tell me whoever you are.

What have been your escapes?

Nevertheless freedom is as ever an intense girl angel

That speaks to me one in the inane wilderness

Where has been your phantasmagoria?

Are the dark trees at war with the darklike trees?

Where has been your light

Where has been your swordy well,

Where has been your darklike table?

Did you ever search for another star?