Spoon River Anthology
Edgar Lee Masters
Herman Altman << --- >> Columbus Cheney
Jennie M'Grew
NOT, where the stairway turns in the dark
A hooded figure, shriveled under a flowing cloak!
Not yellow eyes in the room at night,
Staring out from a surface of cobweb gray!
And not the flap of a condor wing
When the roar of life in your ears begins
As a sound heard never before!
But on a sunny afternoon,
By a country road,
Where purple rag-weeds bloom along a straggling fence
And the field is gleaned, and the air is still
To see against the sun-light something black
Like a blot with an iris rim --
That is the sign to eyes of second sight ...
And that I saw!
Source: Project Gutenberg