TO A SICK CHILD

By Evelyn Scott

At the end of the day

The sun rusts.

The street is old and quiet.

The houses are of iron.

The shadows are iron.

Shrill screams of children scrape the iron sky.

Let us lock ourselves in the light.

Let the sun nail us to the hot earth with his spikes of fire,

And perhaps when the darkness rushes past

It will forget us.