Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PURPLE VEINS, by MILDRED FOWLER FIELD


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PURPLE VEINS, by                    
First Line: He dreamed - just once - of touching a white woman
Last Line: Reeling trees and rippled purple silence!
Subject(s): African Americans; Colors; Racism; White (color); Negroes; American Blacks; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry


He dreamed -- just once -- of touching a White Woman,
Slim, with hair like the sun on yellow elder;
Dreamed to writhe and curse in hungry fury --
Roused to curse the unknown White Man father
Whose thin, blue blood mixed with the native crimson

To burn a sinister purple through his veins.
he dreamed again. . . . but of life a field of cotton --
Green and brown and sometimes even purple.
When the day died. . . he envied his Black Brothers,
But hated them too, for singing at night in the canebrake --
Hated their "shine," and the banjos' whine, and the wenches
Fat . . . stinking of sweat and foul tobacco.
He knew they hated him for his yellow cunning --
Hated him -- for his long, green eyes and his dreams.

Nights he watched the stars, like ghostly buzzards,
Gliding white on the blue-black roof of the heavens --
Half in fear that they knew his purple passion.
Nights he watched the stars and saw Her coming.

Half in fear . . . the swirling mists of morning
Cleft to show Her there, in the path to his cabin.
There, with hair like the sun on yellow elder,
There, with a mouth like the folded bud of the flame-vine.
White as a jasmine star Her throat and bosom,
And the red sun carved Her white for his eyes to ravish --
Turned to stone by a mocking-bird's pipe from a sweet-gum,
Swift to flee at a hushed, black step on the sand.

All that day still trees hung over the bayou,
Copper, bronze, and black in the forms of women;
Witch-birds wheeled . . . while mist that haunted the marshes
Had throat, and breasts, and rounded flanks of purple.
Dead men came with the dark to moan in the pines!

But . . . every day She followed the dawn . . . and vanished:
The long, gray moss in the trees turned green at Her coming;
And every day he hid in the sword palmettos. . . .
But every day, as he picked the prickled cotton,
He listened to the birds to mock their trills and quavers:
"Who-eet . . . Who-ee . . . Who-eet!" he called to the cotton,
And the Black Men laughed and rolled their eyes . . . and left him.
But all night long, and every night, he saw them --
The Purple Women dancing over the bayou:
Swinging long scarves, and calling . . . calling . . . calling!
He'd slip to the brink and dream of death by drowning --
Slap . . . Cool! Slap . . . Cool! . . . Cool death to quench his flame!

Purple death! . . . But still the Jasmine Woman
Came with the dawn . . . But a noose swung high from a live oak,
Or was it moss? . . . and white-clad devils farther
Deep in the woods . . . or were they only birches?

Came a night when the moon burnt blood in the canebreak.
Stark trees hung close to the water's edge in terror,
Afraid of their silver ghosts with boles of crimson.
Old owls called "Who-oo are You-oo!" and he followed
Down through the fern to the crimson lip of the bayou --
Down where She crouched . . . carved red for his arms to ravish!

He whistled low, at first, for his teeth were chattering --
The purple blood beat . . . beat against his throat --
Whistled and watched and quivered there by the bayou . . .
He didn't see the Shadow behind Her shadow,
Only Her mouth like the open bloom of the flame-vine;
Only Her throat and the tip of Her breast dyed scarlet.

He whistled long . . . and closer creeping, closer --
Out of the jungle, creeping . . . creeping . . . creeping --
Jungle Drums . . . Gibbering Apes . . . Peacocks . . .

A yellow claw leapt out to clutch Her shoulder.
He had not seen the Shadow behind Her shadow --
The shape with arms of moss and the face of water --
Reaching moss . . . and purple, purple water.

How She wavered upside-down in the bayou . . .
Slap . . . Cool! Slap . . . Cool! . . . a silver plash, then Silence!
Reeling trees and rippled purple Silence!





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