ALABAMA TWILIGHT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 73

ALABAMA TWILIGHT.

Black-bearded horsemen Ride the old trail; The last sunset ray Strikes crimson from a breastplate. A gust blows it Against the fluting banner of Spain. Ghosts walk at Twenty-one Mile Bluff Above the blackness gathering below On the Toinbigbee; The -walls of St Louis de la Mobile Are shadows in the mist— Violins—(Their notes are scampering through the dusk) Women’s voices—“Sur le pent d’ Avignon On y danse.” Round-topped wagons Swaying behind the slow, slow oxen, Swaying into Alabama. Blue smoke; Out of the half-light—a war whoop. Cabins at St. Stephens, Cabins at Cahaba, >. Wetumpka and Eufala, Atauga, Sylacauga, Tuskalusa, Tallapoosa. Boligee. Long fields of cotton Lie white, White as the columns of the Big House Among the dark oaks, (Silver door-knobs and carpets of white velvet.) A minor chant, long drawn, Soft and husky as the air, Drifts From somewhere in the shacks Down at the quarter—“l couldn’t hear nobody pray! O Lord, I couldn’t hear nobody pray !” “Halt! Who comes here?” “Alabama Corps Cadets. Who*goes there?” ’’Fourth Kentucky. Give ’em hell, boys!” School-boys march in white-faced retreat, The April sky behind them alight with intermittent fire. Wings of flame Flaunt molten passion Across the after-sunset skies; Grim black girders Rim the world. Hammers clang high in the air, The earth is a blackened honeycomb. —Carl Lams on Carmer, in the American Mercury.