Didn't You Ever Search For Another Star?
I.
did you say
August ponds
ought to have
been surrounded
by September fences?
but did you say
September fences
ought to have
been climbed over
by October peoples?
what did you say
for October padlocks
that ought never to have
been attached moreover
to November handcuffs?
II.
You'll remember us for our dark Hungarian laughter
That tickled when it laughed, that dug at the limelight
Why, I'll send you a dark silver Hungarian coin
From the mines that never saw the light of day yet
Why, I'll send you a dime's worth of Hungarian damage
That has been done to a cave that is full of Rhapsody
Why, I'll send you a silver key to the cave of despair
I'll send you a violet tonight, I'll send you a silver sword
I'll send you a silver hammer that'll hammer night and day
I'll send you a pail-ful of our kinds of blue revolutionary stars.
III.
Who are you? Weren't you their prisoner in the sedge dark?
Where has been your search for freedom?
Will you count the trees again in these dense woods
Wherever you have been tonight?
Will you look backwards where you have been?
And tell me whoever you are.
What have been your escapes?
Nevertheless freedom is as ever an intense girl angel
That speaks to me one in the inane wilderness
Where has been your phantasmagoria?
Are the dark trees at war with the darklike trees?
Where has been your light
Where has been your swordy well,
Where has been your darklike table?
Did you ever search for another star?
Copyright Credit: Afred Starr Hamilton, "Didn’t You Ever Search For Another Star?" from A Dark Dreambox of Another Kind: The Poems of Alfred Starr Hamilton. Copyright © 2013 by Afred Starr Hamilton. Reprinted by permission of The Song Cave.
Source: A Dark Dreambox of Another Kind: The Poems of Alfred Starr (The Song Cave, 2016)