What's your secret grim refrain
Back and forth and back again,
Once, and now, and always so?
Three days since, and who was Thief?
Three days more, and who'll be Chief?
Oh, is that beyond belief,
_Doctor, Lawyer--Merchant-Chief?_

(_Down, like grass before the mowing;
On, like wind in its mad going:--
Wind and dust forever blowing._)

Highway, shrill with murderous pride,
Highway, of the swarming tide!
Why should my way lead me deeper?
I am not my Brother's keeper.


II

Byway, ambushed with the dark,
Byway, where the ears may hark;
Live and fierce when day is done,
You, that do without the Sun:--
What's this game you bring to nought?--
Muttering like a thing distraught,
Reckoning like a simpleton?
(Since the hearing must be brief,--
Living or a dying thief!)
Cobbled with the anguished stones