A BAREFOOT boy! I mark him at his play -- For May is here once more, and so is he, -- His dusty trousers, rolled half to the knee, And his bare ankles grimy, too, as they: Cross-hatchings of the nettle, in array Of feverish stripes, hint vividly to me Of woody pathways winding endlessly Along the creek, where even yesterday He plunged his shrinking body -- gasped and shook -- Yet called the water "warm," with never lack Of joy. And so, half enviously I look Upon this graceless barefoot and his track, -- His toe stubbed -- ay, his big toe-nail knocked back Like unto the clasp of an old pocketbook. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FROM THE SHORE by CARL SANDBURG DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI: 5. THE STEVEDORES by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER DEAD MAN'S DUMP by ISAAC ROSENBERG THE CLOUDS: THE OLD EDUCATION by ARISTOPHANES ASPIRATIONS: 10 by MATHILDE BLIND |