"
"Did they make something lonesome go through you?
"Did they make something lonesome go through you?
Robert Forst
"
Joe said: "You big boys ought to find a farm,
And make good farmers, and leave other fellows
The city work to do. There's not enough
For everybody as it is in there. "
"God! " one said wildly, and, when no one spoke:
"Say that to Jimmy here. He needs a farm. "
But Jimmy only made his jaw recede
Fool-like, and rolled his eyes as if to say
He saw himself a farmer. Then there was a French boy
Who said with seriousness that made them laugh,
"Ma friend, you ain't know what it is you're ask. "
He doffed his cap and held it with both hands
Across his chest to make as 'twere a bow:
"We're giving you our chances on de farm. "
And then they all turned to with deafening boots
And put each other bodily out of the house.
"Goodby to them! We puzzle them. They think--
I don't know what they think we see in what
They leave us to: that pasture slope that seems
The back some farm presents us; and your woods
To northward from your window at the sink,
Waiting to steal a step on us whenever
We drop our eyes or turn to other things,
As in the game 'Ten-step' the children play. "
"Good boys they seemed, and let them love the city.
All they could say was 'God! ' when you proposed
Their coming out and making useful farmers.
"
"Did they make something lonesome go through you?
It would take more than them to sicken you--
Us of our bargain. But they left us so
As to our fate, like fools past reasoning with.
They almost shook _me_. "
"It's all so much
What we have always wanted, I confess
It's seeming bad for a moment makes it seem
Even worse still, and so on down, down, down.
It's nothing; it's their leaving us at dusk.
I never bore it well when people went.
The first night after guests have gone, the house
Seems haunted or exposed. I always take
A personal interest in the locking up
At bedtime; but the strangeness soon wears off. "
He fetched a dingy lantern from behind
A door. "There's that we didn't lose! And these! "--
Some matches he unpocketed. "For food--
The meals we've had no one can take from us.
I wish that everything on earth were just
As certain as the meals we've had. I wish
The meals we haven't had were, anyway.
Joe said: "You big boys ought to find a farm,
And make good farmers, and leave other fellows
The city work to do. There's not enough
For everybody as it is in there. "
"God! " one said wildly, and, when no one spoke:
"Say that to Jimmy here. He needs a farm. "
But Jimmy only made his jaw recede
Fool-like, and rolled his eyes as if to say
He saw himself a farmer. Then there was a French boy
Who said with seriousness that made them laugh,
"Ma friend, you ain't know what it is you're ask. "
He doffed his cap and held it with both hands
Across his chest to make as 'twere a bow:
"We're giving you our chances on de farm. "
And then they all turned to with deafening boots
And put each other bodily out of the house.
"Goodby to them! We puzzle them. They think--
I don't know what they think we see in what
They leave us to: that pasture slope that seems
The back some farm presents us; and your woods
To northward from your window at the sink,
Waiting to steal a step on us whenever
We drop our eyes or turn to other things,
As in the game 'Ten-step' the children play. "
"Good boys they seemed, and let them love the city.
All they could say was 'God! ' when you proposed
Their coming out and making useful farmers.
"
"Did they make something lonesome go through you?
It would take more than them to sicken you--
Us of our bargain. But they left us so
As to our fate, like fools past reasoning with.
They almost shook _me_. "
"It's all so much
What we have always wanted, I confess
It's seeming bad for a moment makes it seem
Even worse still, and so on down, down, down.
It's nothing; it's their leaving us at dusk.
I never bore it well when people went.
The first night after guests have gone, the house
Seems haunted or exposed. I always take
A personal interest in the locking up
At bedtime; but the strangeness soon wears off. "
He fetched a dingy lantern from behind
A door. "There's that we didn't lose! And these! "--
Some matches he unpocketed. "For food--
The meals we've had no one can take from us.
I wish that everything on earth were just
As certain as the meals we've had. I wish
The meals we haven't had were, anyway.
