Fox Footprints/The Great Wall

by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

The Great Wall

Mountains,
Green faded to gold,
Turf-shaggy like a camel,
Towering,
Tumultuous,
Uncompromising as the ten commandments,
Glorious as a psalm,
Gale-swept, cloud-swept, sand-swept, snow-swept—

Across these the Wall's crested sinuousness
Daring all chasms,
Leaping all precipices,
Writhing its stone length
Across each challenge of tormented rock
To raise again a blunt watch-tower head
Down-glaring on Mongolia's fierce plains.