Croton-on-Hudson

Ruthven Todd

Unexpectedly, on the alien hill, the familiar flower is seen,
The bladder-campion's smooth pods, the golden-rod,
The sorrel's triplets, but sheltered by the broken green
Of leaves of sumach and ailanthus, where the elder's
Clustering of flowers might, by the stranger, be expected;

The chirping sparrow pursues a stranger butterfly,
And in the wood the catbird mews and the cricket
Purls its long song, and after dusk the lightning-bugs fly
Sparkling among the unfamiliar trees. Here, where they mix,
The unknown and the known have become a certain place.