For Eager Lovers (Taggard collection)/Revolution

by Genevieve Taggard

REVOLUTION

What husks of last year's winter close you in,To-morrow's world—what dead, what wrinkled skinOf ancient parchments, laws, beliefs! what dried,Worn, tattered layers keep the life inside,Where slender as a sword, and tender greenIt trembles, pushes, patient and unseen:Vibrating atom, fronded silken thread,Some day to shake, to sunder back the deadTwo halves of hemispheres—to pierce the crustOf ages' rubbish, crowns and cults and dust!

See, iron arms, that clutter all the widePlateau of liberty—see, fortifiedDull spikey towns—you cannot hold your ownAgainst one seed a fecund earth has grown!Alarmed you stand, alert to meet your foe,Ready to battle blow for thundering blow;Nor do you see this sprout of common wheat,The blade, between your firm implanted feet.