Читать книгу Mortal Summer онлайн

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He walked, testing the wire, and wished again

For his old pipe. He missed it, and grew moody.

Berrien would never notice it on the shelf;

Berrien would never bring it. A good wife,

But scornful of the comforts. A good woman,

Who never guessed the outrage he had done her.

New Year’s Eve, and Dora. He remembered—

And set his jaw, missing the pipe stem there.

He pulled at a slack strand of the barbed wire,

And snagged himself—here, in the palm of his hand.

A little blood came which he wiped away.

He did miss that tobacco. And he did,

He did loathe simple Dora—warm and simple,

Who with her dark head nodding close to his,

On New Year’s Eve, had done with him this outrage.

He would forget her if he could; and old

Darius, her profane, her grizzled father.

So proud of her he was, and kept so neat

The mountain shack they lived in, he and his one

Sweet chick he swore was safe as in State’s prison.

Daniel counted the months. Was the child showing?

Darius—did he guess? And Doctor Smith—

Would she have gone to him? Daniel looked off,