the cab...
hands wrenched away...
wind in the masts... like Celia crying....
Celia never minded if you slapped her
when the comb made your hairs ache,
but though you rub your cheek against mama's hand
she has not said darling since....
Now I will slap her again....
I will bite her hand till it bleeds.

It is cool by the port hole.
The wet rags of the wind
flap in your face.

II

THE ALLEY

Because you are four years old
the candle is all dressed up in a new frill.
And stars nod to you through the hole in the curtain,
(except the big stiff planets
too fat to move about much,)
and you curtsey back to the stars
when no one is looking.
You feel sorry for the poor wooden chair
that knows it isn't nice to sit on,
and no one is sad but mama.
You don't like mama to be sad
when you are four years old,
so you pretend
you like the bitter gold-pale tea--
you pretend
if you don't drink it up pretty quick
a little gold-fish
will think it is a pond
and come and get born in it.

: :

It's hot in our street
and the breeze is a dirty little broom
that sweeps dust into our room
and bits of paper out of the alley.
You are not let to play
with the children in the alley
But you must be very polite--
so you pass them and say good day
and when they fling banana skins
you fling them back again.

: :

There is no one to play with
and the flies on the window
buzz and buzz...
...you can pull out their legs
and stick pins in their bodies
but still they buzz...
and mama says:
When Nero was a little boy
he caught flies on his mama's window
and pulled out their legs
and stuck pins in their bodies
and nobody loved him.
Buzz, blue-bellied flies--
buzz, nasty black wheel
of mama's machine--
you are the biggest fly of all--
you have the loudest buzz.
I hear you at dawn before the locusts.
But I like the picture of the Flood
and the little babies getting drowned....
If I were there I would save them,
but as I can't save them
I like to watch them
getting drowned.

: :

When mama buys of Ling Ho,
he smiles very wide
and picks her the largest loquots.
The greens-man gave her a cabbage
and she held it against her black bodice
and said what a beautiful green it was
and put it on the table
as though it had been a flower.
But next day we boi