I

The women hold a child up for a shield, And speak of it tenderly, Seeing it b.l.o.o.d.y.

II

The lovers throw back the scented coverlet And are afraid.

Seeing Death in their own nakedness, They shroud it with flowers.

III

The corpse was stiff like an arrow.

As they carried it past the onlookers It pierced the crowd with its life.

Blank white faces floated back In terror of its vividness.

IV

The man was dead.

It was seen to that he was buried.

Again and again they dug the bones up, But when they could no longer find the bones They groped for the proof of death In fear of the resurrection.

ALLEGRO

(At the Cemetery)

The mounds stir in the sunshine.

Bones clack a light staccato.

Bare wrist bones, Thigh bones, Ankle bones, Kick the soil loose.

Moldy draperies flutter back and forth through the light.

The trees have put on a thin green pretense.

Even the soil pretends to fecundity.

Toothless jaws widen in a smile of real mirth.

Bones lightened of flesh Flash in the sunshine.

And afterward The dead rest in the spring night, Each in a silence molded to him, Each in his own night, A casket with a spangled lining.

The dead rest deep in their happiness.