Cried the navy-blue ghost <br />Of Mr. Belaker <br />The allegro Negro cocktail-shaker, <br />"Why did the cock crow, <br />Why am I lost, <br />Down the endless road to Infinity toss'd? <br />The tropical leaves are whispering white <br />As water; I race the wind in my flight. <br />The white lace houses are carried away <br />By the tide; far out they float and sway. <br />White is the nursemaid on the parade. <br />Is she real, as she flirts with me unafraid? <br />I raced through the leaves as white as water... <br />Ghostly, flowed over the nursemaid, caught her, <br />Left her...edging the far-off sand <br />Is the foam of the sirens' Metropole and Grand; <br />And along the parade I am blown and lost, <br />Down the endless road to Infinity toss'd. <br />The guinea-fowl-plumaged houses sleep... <br />On one, I saw the lone grass weep, <br />Where only the whimpering greyhound wind <br />Chased me, raced me, for what it could find." <br />And there in the black and furry boughs <br />How slowly, coldly, old Time grows, <br />Where the pigeons smelling of gingerbread, <br />And the spectacled owls so deeply read, <br />And the sweet ring-doves of curded milk <br />Watch the Infanta's gown of silk <br />In the ghost-room tall where the governante <br />Gesticulates lente and walks andante. <br />'Madam, Princesses must be obedient; <br />For a medicine now becomes expedient-- <br />Of five ingredients--a diapente, <br />Said the governante, fading lente... <br />In at the window then looked he, <br />The navy-blue ghost of Mr. Belaker, <br />The allegro Negro cocktail-shaker-- <br />And his flattened face like the moon saw she-- <br />Rhinoceros-black (a flowing sea!).<br /><br />Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/four-in-the-morning/
