14
THE DREAM BARGE
Carries a bowl of scarlet, filled With snowy milk and floating bread;And, pecking with pink beaks at it,Blue pigeons on his shoulder sit.
Here is a lady, deeply veiled, Two bright eyes o'er a strip of lace,She watches as if wondering At two strange children in this place;The jewels on her hand are great,Her wrist seems weary of their weight.A dusky eunuch follows her, With feathers in his woolly hair;If he should stab her with his knife, We scarcely think that she would careWe sigh as to our barge we swing,She seems to us the loneliest thing!
II
Here the grey donkeys climb the pass, Their osier baskets bulging bigWith sugary dates in Smyrna packed, And bursting lilacs of the fig.We turn from these, amazed to seeHow deep the blue of Galilee!We have no map; our barge floats on, Our Captain only is our wish!A gaudy-hued flamingo screams Above the silver heaps of fish.And there a grave, black-bearded manIs watchful of the pelican.
