Long Steel Grass

Long steel grass -

The white soldiers pass -

The light is braying like an ass.

See

The tall Spanish jade

With hair black as night-shade

Worn as a cockade!

Flee

Her eyes' gasconade

And her gown's parade

(As stiff as a brigade!)

Tee-hee!

The hard and braying light

Is zebra'd black and white

It will take away the slight

And free,

Tinge of the mouth organ sound,

(Oyster-stall notes) oozing round

Her flounces as they sweep the ground.

The

Trumpet and the drum

And the martial cornet come

To make the people dumb -

But we

Won't wait for sly-foot night

(Moonlight, watered milk-white, bright)

To make clear the declaration

Of our Paphian vocation

Beside the castanetted sea,

Where stalks Il Capitaneo

Swaggart braggadocio

Sword and moustacio - He

Is green as a cassada

And his hair is an armada.

To the jade: "Come kiss me harder"

He called across the battlements as she

Heard our voices thin and shrill

As the steely grasses' thrill,

Or the sound of the onycha

When the phoca has the pica

In the palace of the Queen Chinee!