Pine River Bay / Dorothy Dudley

Pine River Bay

The mimics dance in the cities,
Pavlowa in New York;
Death dances in Europe —
Like a bottle without cork,
Life loses its contents —
While the mimics dance in New York,
Offering the glories
Fabled in old stories.

But the leaves dance in the forest,
Gold and scarlet in the north;
And the gray waves dance,
And the wind stalks forth—
Like torn paper lanterns,
Like confetti in the north,
Leaves are whirling about,
A purple pallid rout.

Trees burn among the pines,
Rose and yellow torches;
The summer guests are gone,
Nobody sweeps their porches —  
Two or three lumbermen
Among the golden torches
Swing huge sledge hammers,
While the gray lake clambers.

Two of them love whiskey,
One has loved the sea;
All of them have faces
The wind has carved in glee.
The mimics dance in the cities,
Death across the sea —
Leaves dance in the north,
And the deer run forth.

~~
Dorothy Dudley (1884-1962)
from Poetry, December 1917

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada and the United States]

Dorothy Dudley biography