Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 4. THE MOON'S ORCHESTRA, by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER



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DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 4. THE MOON'S ORCHESTRA, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When the moon lights up
Last Line: Which show, through gaps and tatters, red stains half hidden away.
Subject(s): Mississippi River; Rivers


When the moon lights up
Its dull red campfire through the trees;
And floats out, like a white balloon,
Into the blue cup of the night, borne by a casual breeze;
The moon-orchestra then begins to stir.
Jiggle of fiddles commence their crazy dance in the darkness.
Crickets churr
Against the stark reiteration of the rusty flutes which frogs
Puff at from rotted logs
In the swamp.
And then the moon begins her dance of frozen pomp
Over the lightly quivering floor of the flat and mournful river.
Her white feet slightly twist and swirl.
She is a mad girl
In an old unlit ball room
Whose walls, half-guessed at through the gloom,
Are hung with the rusty crape of stark black cypress
Which show, through gaps and tatters, red stains half hidden away.





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