Ii

Brazen hypnotics glitter here; Glee shifts from foot to foot, Magnetic to their tremulo. This crashing opera bouffe, Blest excursion! this ricochet From roof to roof-- Know, Olympians, we are breathless While nigger cupids scour the stars!

A thousand light shrugs balance us Through snarling hails of melody. White shadows slip across the floor Splayed like cards from a loose hand; Rhythmic ellipses lead into canters Until somewhere a rooster banters.

Greet naïvely--yet intrepidly New soothings, new amazements That cornets introduce at every turn-- And you may fall downstairs with me With perfect grace and equanimity. Or, plaintively scud past shores Where, by strange harmonic laws All relatives, serene and cool, Sit rocked in patent armchairs.

O, I have known metallic paradises Where cuckoos clucked to finches Above the deft catastrophes of drums. While titters hailed the groans of death Beneath gyrating awnings I have seen The incunabula of the divine grotesque. This music has a reassuring way.

The siren of the springs of guilty song-- Let us take her on the incandescent wax Striated with nuances, nervosities That we are heir to: she is still so young, We cannot frown upon her as she smiles, Dipping here in this cultivated storm Among slim skaters of the gardened skies.