After the Flood
As soon as the idea of the Flood had subsided, a hare paused among the sainfoins and the swaying bellflowers, and said his prayer to the rainbow through the spider's web.
Oh! the precious stones that were hiding, - the flowers that already looked around.
In the filthy main street butchers' stalls rose, and barges were tugged toward the sea rising up in tiers as in engravings.
Blood flowed, at Bluebeard's, - in slaughterhouses, - in circuses, where the seal of God whitened the windows. Blood and milk flowed.
Beavers did their building. Glasses of black coffee steamed in the cafes.
In the still dripping big house with glass panes, children in mourning looked at the marvelous reflections.
A door slammed, and, in the village square, the child waved his arms, understood by weather vanes and cocks on steeples everywhere, under the glittering downpour.
Madame *** installed a piano in the Alps. Mass and first communions were celebrated at the hundred thousand alters of the cathedral.
Caravans departed. And the Hotel Splendide was erected in the chaos of ice and of polar night.
From that time, the Moon heard jackals howling through the wildernesses of thyme - and eclogues in wooden shoes grumbling in the orchard. Then, in the forest, violet-hued, burgeoning, Eucharis told me that it was spring.
Gush forth, pond; - Foam, roll above the bridge and over the woods; - black palls and organs, - lightning and thunder, - rise up and roll; - Waters and sorrows, rise up and release the Floods again.
For since they have vanished, - oh! the precious stones burying themselves, and the opened flowers! - it's a nuisance! and the Queen, the Sorceress who kindles her coals in the earthen pot, will never be willing to tell us what she knows, and what we do not know.
Oh! the precious stones that were hiding, - the flowers that already looked around.
In the filthy main street butchers' stalls rose, and barges were tugged toward the sea rising up in tiers as in engravings.
Blood flowed, at Bluebeard's, - in slaughterhouses, - in circuses, where the seal of God whitened the windows. Blood and milk flowed.
Beavers did their building. Glasses of black coffee steamed in the cafes.
In the still dripping big house with glass panes, children in mourning looked at the marvelous reflections.
A door slammed, and, in the village square, the child waved his arms, understood by weather vanes and cocks on steeples everywhere, under the glittering downpour.
Madame *** installed a piano in the Alps. Mass and first communions were celebrated at the hundred thousand alters of the cathedral.
Caravans departed. And the Hotel Splendide was erected in the chaos of ice and of polar night.
From that time, the Moon heard jackals howling through the wildernesses of thyme - and eclogues in wooden shoes grumbling in the orchard. Then, in the forest, violet-hued, burgeoning, Eucharis told me that it was spring.
Gush forth, pond; - Foam, roll above the bridge and over the woods; - black palls and organs, - lightning and thunder, - rise up and roll; - Waters and sorrows, rise up and release the Floods again.
For since they have vanished, - oh! the precious stones burying themselves, and the opened flowers! - it's a nuisance! and the Queen, the Sorceress who kindles her coals in the earthen pot, will never be willing to tell us what she knows, and what we do not know.