| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920. 1920. |
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| Song of a Woman with Twins |
| | | Myrtle Eberstein |
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| Ou! Ou! Ou! | |
| When I was young and little, | |
| And thought only of the mealies and the sun | |
| And the wet whispering river water, | |
| How could I tell what would befall me— | 5 |
| How could I know what should come to me! | |
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| Why did the demons come? | |
| Why did they make me bear | |
| Two bodies at one birth? | |
| Ah, they were not like demons— | 10 |
| They were like little helpless man-children, | |
| Little and hungry, with curling hands and feet, | |
| Like the son I hoped to bear! | |
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| All the night I screamed. | |
| And all the night I bore them— | 15 |
| Why did the witch-man’s drum, beating by my head, | |
| Why did the witch-man’s charms, smelling strong with enchantment— | |
| Why did they not keep the demons | |
| From being born to me? | |
| My father gave him cowries, | 20 |
| Cowries and a gun, | |
| Taken from a white man | |
| That he killed a year ago— | |
| Slowly, slowly, | |
| For good and lasting magic | 25 |
| That the gun should shoot straight. | |
| None had such a gun! | |
| And yet the demons came— | |
| At my right breast a demon, | |
| At my left breast a demon, | 30 |
| Sucking, sucking. | |
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| Oh, the little hungry mouths, | |
| Oh, the little curling hands, | |
| That they will drown tonight! | |
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| Ou! Ou! Ou! | 35 |
| When I was little and young, | |
| Tumbling laughing in the sunshine, | |
| How should I know what would come to me? | |
| How should I know what would befall me? | |
Ou! Ou! Ou!
Poetry, A Magazine of Verse | 40 |
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