IN A COFFEE POT
And I compare myself with him-this fly and 1-
He
crawls head downwards down a peeling wall
And I crawl after him.
You ask "Tomorrow?" ... Go ask Fernando in the eatquick joint.
Ask Jorgensen pounding Sixth Avenue. Ask Martinelii too,
Watching the hole enlarging in his shoe.
And ask me here-alone with the crawling flies–
And I ... I have seen the pain there in their eyes.
We shall not sit forever here and wait.
We shall not sit forever here and rot.
The agencies are filing cards of hate.
And I have seen how men
lift
up their hands
And turn them so and pause-
And so the slow brain moves and understands–
And so with million hands.
ALFRED HAYES
15
