Three gypsies in a willows’ shade
I saw enjoying the weather,
as my hansom wearily made
ruts through the gorse and the heather.
The first one had, to humour a whim,
gotten a grip on his fiddle,
and in the sunset, haloing him,
played fiery tunes for a diddle.
The second with a pipe spouting smoke
mused on the spiraling drift,
utterly penniless, utterly broke,
he looked on the world as his gift.
The third one was laying fast asleep,
his cymbal high up in the tree.
Over the strings the wind did weep,
in his heart a dream set him free.
The clothes they wore were a sorry mess,
holes and patches around them,
that stated to all that nevertheless,
no chains had ever yet bound them.
Threefold the gypsies taught me that day,
whenever one’s life gets too blighted,
to play it, to smoke it, to dream it away,
and thrice to despise and deride it.
Backwards I looked, and onward I drove,
seeing those gypsies fall back,
bronzed and brown, and like midnights dove
locks that were blacker than black.