Part 4 (2/2)

And over ostrich feathers sigh, By counters there, in Buffalo.

The children haunt the trinket shops, They buy false-faces, bells, and tops, Forgetting great Niagara.

Within the town of Buffalo Are stores with garnets, sapphires, pearls, Rubies, emeralds aglow,-- Opal chains in Buffalo, Cherished symbols of success.

They value not your rainbow dress:-- Niagara, Niagara.

The s.h.a.ggy meaning of her name This Buffalo, this recreant town, Sharps and lawyers prune and tame: Few pioneers in Buffalo; Except young lovers flushed and fleet And winds hallooing down the street: ”Niagara, Niagara.”

The journalists are sick of ink: Boy prodigals are lost in wine, By night where white and red lights blink, The eyes of Death, in Buffalo.

And only twenty miles away Are starlit rocks and healing spray:-- Niagara, Niagara.

Above the town a tiny bird, A s.h.i.+ning speck at sleepy dawn, Forgets the ant-hill so absurd, This self-important Buffalo.

Descending twenty miles away He bathes his wings at break of day-- Niagara, Niagara.

II

What marching men of Buffalo Flood the streets in rash crusade?

Fools-to-free-the-world, they go, Primeval hearts from Buffalo.

Red cataracts of France today Awake, three thousand miles away An echo of Niagara, The cataract Niagara.

Mark Twain and Joan of Arc

When Yankee soldiers reach the barricade Then Joan of Arc gives each the accolade.

For she is there in armor clad, today, All the young poets of the wide world say.

Which of our freemen did she greet the first, Seeing him come against the fires accurst?

Mark Twain, our Chief, with neither smile nor jest, Leading to war our youngest and our best.

The Yankee to King Arthur's court returns.

The sacred flag of Joan above him burns.

For she has called his soul from out the tomb.

And where she stands, there he will stand till doom.

But I, I can but mourn, and mourn again At bloodshed caused by angels, saints, and men.

The Bankrupt Peace Maker

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