when serpents bargain for the right to squirm
and the sun strikes to gain a living wage –
when thorns regard their roses with alarm
and rainbows are insured against old age
when every thrush may sing no new moon in
if all screech-owls have not okayed his voice
– and any wave signs on the dotted line
or else an ocean is compelled to close
when the oak begs permission of the birch
to make an acorn – valleys accuse their
mountains of having altitude – and march
denounces april as a saboteur
then we’ll believe in that incredible
unanimal mankind (and not until)
(E. E. Cummings)
More Poetry from E. E. Cummings:
- Puella Mea (E. E. Cummings Poems)
- The Eagle (E. E. Cummings Poems)
- Young Woman of Cambridge, (E. E. Cummings Poems)
- listen (E. E. Cummings Poems)
- voices to voices,lip to lip (E. E. Cummings Poems)
- Ballad of the Scholar's Lament (E. E. Cummings Poems)