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1886–1950

XVII

John Gould Fletcher

The wind that drives the fine dry sand Across the strand: The sad wind spinning arabesques With a wrinkled hand.

Labyrinths of shifting sand, The dancing dunes! I will arise and run with the sand, And gather it greedily in my hand:

I will wriggle like a long yellow snake over the beaches. I will lie curled up, sleeping, And the wind shall chase me Far inland.

My breath is the music of the mad wind; Shrill piping, stamping of drunken feet, The fluttering, tattered broidery flung Over the dunes’ steep escarpments.

The fine dry sand that whistles Down the long low beaches.

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XVII · John Gould Fletcher · Poetry Cove