October
Langorous with heavy haze
Sinks the scarlet sun. A drowsy hush
Hangs above the city ways,
And stills their rush.
Smoky mist of forest fires
Greyly palls the distance. Pines long dead
Smoulder deep like dead desires —
Their gaunt arms spread.
Golden-red the honeyed moon,
Swarmed about with golden bees, hangs low,
Climbing to her silver noon
With blood-like glow —
Weirdly floats the echo down,
Tom-toms faintly throbbing far away,
Through the haze from Chinatown
Across the bay . . .
John Reed (1887-1920), 1906
from Tamberlaine, and other verses, 1917
[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]
John Reed biography
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