Unearthly Toy

BABETTE DEUTSCH

UNEARTHLY TOY

The river was blowing scarves.

They waved to a cloud as it flew

Round the sun-shod hour,

Who stepped lightly as dew

From a glowing

Green to, aloft, a widening stream of windy blue.

If pigeons, if people, strolled

And preened, it was gesture enough

For a saraband.

One stone angel took off

From the steeple:

Stone, or a puff of smoke, or wing's unfeathering stuff.

When dazzling there dartled-what?

A thing: was it creature or sleight

Of magician's wrist

That shone scarlet in flight?

If it startled,

How it seduced the eye where it dove and swam the

height!

In derelict levity

Pursuing its willowy tail,

It was all a fling

Of twin ribbons, the gale

In a chevy

Ferried hilariously, then left to float and trail.

Now dolphin, then shying clown

On ski jumps of sky or the bight

Of an azure guy;

A laugh dancing; a mite

That in flying blazed like a crown, it winked out of sight,

The runaway kite, in a sommersault's twinkle. O lost

Undying demon of delight!