The Face in the Rain
O form! O face!
Elfin face in the crowd!
Form, face, white throat,
Pale throat wound with a scarf
Poppy red,
Blood-like, red,
Pale throat wound with a poppy scarf
Gleaming out of the crowd.
Background of grey,
A rain-wet street;
Shuffling; shambling
Beating feet,
Past the corner where four ways meet.
O face, O throat!
Crimson and white
Splashed on grey:
I have thought of nothing else all day.
Misted streets,
A scarf-wound throat,
Fay-like face
That seemed to float
Through the crowd
Like a wisp of song:
I have thought of them all day long.
From On a Grey Thread (Will Ransom, 1923) by Elsa Gidlow. This poem is in the public domain.