I drink the gall of skies in autumn, tuberoses’
Sweet bitterness in your betrayals burning stream;
I drink the gall of nights, of crowded parties’ noises,
Of sobbing virgin verse, and of a throbbing dream.
We fiends of studious fight a battle everlasting
Against our daily bread – can’t stand the sober mood.
The troubled wind of nights is merely a toastmaster
Whose toasts, as like as not, will do no one much good.
Heredity and death are our guests at table.
A quiet dawn will paint bright-red the tops of trees.
An anapaest, like mice, will on the bread-plate scrabble,
And Cinderella will rush in to change her dress.
The floors have all been swept, and everything is dainty,
And like a child’s sweet kiss, breathes quietly my verse,
And Cinderella flees-by cab on days of plenty,
And on shanks’ pony when the last small coin is lost.
(Boris Pasternak)
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Based on Topics: Night Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Nature Poems, War & Peace Poems, Dreams Poems, Kiss Poems, Autumn PoemsBased on Keywords: cab, shanks, toasts, cinderella, heredity, scrabble, bright-red, betrayals, tuberoses