THE SONG OF THE COLORADO RIVER by AMELIA WOODWARD TRUESDELL

To my own again in the Salton Sea,
As the Indians sagas of old have said,
When times and a time of my exile shall be,
I will leap again from my rock-bound bed.

For ages that deep dry sea was mine,
For me she unbarred her ocean gates;
And forever my sea shells and corallines shine
On her brow, uncrowned by the envious fates.

How that land was fair when I lay on her breast
With verbenas aflame and green with the palms!
Ten thousand ages of beauty and rest
In the glow of her bloom and her passionate charms!

But a jealous Titan earthward bent,
And the rocks he smote both far and wide;
I slipped from her arms through the mountain rent;
Ah, then on her forehead the garlands died.

For æons she lay with her sands unsought;
I was chafing and bound in my narrow bed;
But the times and a time their days have wrought,
And I come again as the sagas have said.

Though again I be bound I will come from afar,
To the sea and the land of my heart's desire;
My gates of rock I will thrust ajar,
For the Indian sagas are written in fire.

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