The Beginner
(After he as been extemporising
on an Instrument
not of his own invention)
(Browning)
Lo! What is this that I make—sudden, supreme, unrehearsed—
This that my clutch in the crowd pressed at a venture has raised?
Forward and onward I sprang when I thought (as I ought) I reversed,
And a cab like martagon opes and I sit in the wreckage dazed.
And someone is taking my name, and the driver is rending the air
With cries for my blood and my gold, and a snickering news—boy brings
My cap, wheel—pashed from the kerb. I must run her home for repair,
Where she leers with her bonnet awry—flat on the nether springs!
