India Wharf

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h2 id="id00124" style="margin-top: 4em"> THE INDIA WHARF</h2> <p id="id00125">  HERE in the velvet stillness<br/> The wide sown fields fall to the faint horizon,<br/> Sleeping in starlight. . . .<br/></p> <p id="id00126" style="margin-top: 2em">  A year ago we walked in the jangling city<br/> Together . . . . forgetful.<br/> One by one we crossed the avenues,<br/> Rivers of light, roaring in tumult,<br/> And came to the narrow, knotted streets.<br/> Thru the tense crowd<br/> We went aloof, ecstatic, walking in wonder,<br/> Unconscious of our motion.<br/> Forever the foreign people with dark, deep-seeing eyes<br/> Passed us and passed.<br/> Lights and foreign words and foreign faces,<br/> I forgot them all;<br/> I only felt alive, defiant of all death and sorrow,<br/> Sure and elated.<br/></p> <p id="id00127"> That was the gift you gave me. . . .</p> <p id="id00128">  The streets grew still more tangled,<br/> And led at last to water black and glossy,<br/> Flecked here and there with lights, faint and far off.<br/> There on a shabby building was a sign<br/> "The India Wharf " . . . and we turned back.<br/></p> <p id="id00129">  I always felt we could have taken ship<br/> And crossed the bright green seas<br/> To dreaming cities set on sacred streams<br/> And palaces<br/> Of ivory and scarlet.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />