<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</SPAN></span>
<h2 class="nobreak">PRONOUNCED FANTASY</h2>
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<div class="verse"><div class="drop-cap2">A NEGRO girl with skin</div>
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<div class="verse">As black as a psychic threat,</div>
<div class="verse">And plentiful swells of blonde hair,</div>
<div class="verse">Sat at a badly tuned piano</div>
<div class="verse">And vanquished her fingers upon the keys.</div>
<div class="verse">A midnight exultation</div>
<div class="verse">Fastened itself on her face,</div>
<div class="verse">Quivering over the shrouded prominence</div>
<div class="verse">Of her lips and nose.</div>
<div class="verse">Her dress was pink and short,</div>
<div class="verse">And hung upon her tall, thin body,</div>
<div class="verse">Like a lesson in buffoonery.</div>
<div class="verse">She lectured her heart on the piano</div>
<div class="verse">With violence of minor chords.</div>
<div class="verse">Her voice was a prisoner</div>
<div class="verse">Whose strong hands turned the bars of his cell</div>
<div class="verse">Into musical strings.</div>
<div class="verse"><i>Wen’ tuh Houston, tuh get mah trunk,</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Did’n get mah trunk, but ah got dam’ drunk.</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Well, ahm satisfi-i-ied</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Cause ah gotta be-e-e-ee.</i></div>
<div class="verse">The negro girl turned and cursed</div>
<div class="verse">With religious incision</div>
<div class="verse">At a parrot in a white spittoon.</div>
<div class="verse">He pampered his derision</div>
<div class="verse">While she played another tune.</div>
<div class="verse">Then he saw her long blonde hair</div>
<div class="verse">And paused in the midst of his squawk.</div>
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<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</SPAN></span></p>
<h3>II</h3></div>
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<div class="verse"><span class="giant">I</span> FOUND the negro girl</div>
<div class="verse">Walking down a railroad track.</div>
<div class="verse">The unconscious humour of sunlight</div>
<div class="verse">Disputed the gloom of her skin.</div>
<div class="verse">Her gray and dirty clothes</div>
<div class="verse">Disgraced the haste of her body.</div>
<div class="verse">Her feet and arms were bare</div>
<div class="verse">And thin as sensual disappointments.</div>
<div class="verse">An egg stood straight upon</div>
<div class="verse">The blonde attention of her hair.</div>
<div class="verse">The upturned remonstrance of her head</div>
<div class="verse">Revealed her balancing effort.</div>
<div class="verse">Lacking a more intense food</div>
<div class="verse">She dined upon the air</div>
<div class="verse">And sang with loosened despair.</div>
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<div class="verse"><i>Gonna lay mah head right down upon dat—</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Down upon dat railroad track!</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Gonna rest mah head right down upon dat railroad track.</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>An’ wen the train goes by—’m boy—</i></div>
<div class="verse"><i>Ahm gonna snatch it back.</i></div>
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<div class="verse">The negro girl received my gaze</div>
<div class="verse">And broke it on her poignant face.</div>
<div class="verse">“Why do you carry the egg?” I said.</div>
<div class="verse">“If I could only hate it less</div>
<div class="verse">I might break it, and undress,”</div>
<div class="verse">She answered with motionless lips.</div>
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