She speaks to the limber-hip’d man near the garden pickets,

This is a fullgrown lily’s face,

I read the promise and patiently wait.

Tall and sufficient stand behind and make signs to me;

Spots or cracks at the windows do not disturb me,

In each house is the ovum .... it comes forth after a thousand years.

Off the word I have spoken I except not one .... red white or black, all are deific,

They show their descent from the Master himself.

These faces bear testimony slumbering or awake,

This face of a healthy honest boy is the programme of all good.

This face is flavored fruit ready for eating;

This is the face commanding and bearded .... it asks no odds of the rest;

This face is a lifeboat;

I hear victorious drums.

I see the high pioneercaps .... I see the staves of runners clearing the way,

Out of this face emerge banners and horses .... O superb! .... I see what is coming,

Always the shadow in front .... always the reached hand bringing up the laggards.

The Lord advances and yet advances:

And I shall meet the real landlord perfect and unharmed, every inch as good ag myself.

And I shall look again in a score or two of ages,

The same wait to clear the rubbish from the fallen tenement;

I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother,

And I knew for my consolation what they knew not;

I saw the face of the most smeared and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum,

You’ll be unmuzzled .... you certainly will.

Splay and twist as you like .... poke with the tangling fores of fishes or rats,

I see neath the rims of your haggard and mean disguises.

I see your rounded never-erased flow,

Well then you cannot trick me.

Features of my equals, would you trick me with your creased and cadaverous march?