Edward S. Silvera (Edward Silvera), "Virginia Memories" (1927)
By Edward S. Silvera
Comparison
Dawn--
And the forms of trees
Against the sky,
Dark trees,
Scrawny and earth hardened
Like the hands of those who toil.
Dawn,
Trees,
And the hands of my people
Stretching upward
As they have
For ages.
Old Things
Wine aged in wood,
The dusty portrait in the attic,
Grandmother's gray hair,
Spirituals,
(Things old as the earth is old
And beautiful as the earth)
Old things—
Sometimes they are good to hear
Or taste
Or to look at
:More often
They are pleasant to think of.
Virginia Scenery
Mountains that rise
Like colossal brown breasts,
Skies that bend low,
Blue skies
That bend low,
Sucking from big brown breasts.
Published in Carolina Magazine, May 1927