when serpents bargain for the right to squirm <br />and the sun strikes to gain a living wage - <br />when thorns regard their roses with alarm <br />and rainbows are insured against old age <br /> <br />when every thrush may sing no new moon in <br />if all screech-owls have not okayed his voice <br />- and any wave signs on the dotted line <br />or else an ocean is compelled to close <br /> <br />when the oak begs permission of the birch <br />to make an acorn - valleys accuse their <br />mountains of having altitude - and march <br />denounces april as a saboteur <br /> <br />then we'll believe in that incredible <br />unanimal mankind (and not until)<br /><br />Edward Estlin Cummings<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-serpents-bargain/
