Classic Poem

I. The R ISING M OON .

A M ALAYAN runs his canoe over the lagoon,
Over unfathomed waters black and calm,
Kept by the alligator and the loon.
He slides ashore, and climbing arm over arm,
Goes climbing to the top of the highest palm,
For the topmost leaf to work his enemy harm,
Gathered at midnight, brewed in the witch doctor's charm.
What is it there,
The yellow glare
Swinging out of the sultry air?
Is it the lynx that hunts by night,
His fixed eye watching there so bright
For the brown body descending soon?
The feathery top of the tallest palm
Sways in alarm,
Violently the palm top sways to the rising moon.

II. The C URSE .

At dawn when dew shook heavily
And islands laughed within the sea,
My neighbor claimed my banyan tree.
Through sun and shade till spacious noon
I cursed him softly to a tune
Of wild, compelling melody.
I watched through the still afternoon
My neighbor's tongue becoming thick,
My neighbor growing very sick,
And dying most unquietly;
Then, when the sun sank in the bay
Upon the bright and cloudless day,
Myself, my wife, my children three
Had salad from the banyan tree.

III. A FTER R AIN .

The light is set on the hill,
The stream runs fierce and free.
I am cold with the tears of forests chill
As I come to thee.
The light is lost in the night,
The stream is lost in the sea.
Through forests weeping in bright moonlight
I come to thee.