From off its trunk the bark was ripped--
Its very branches all were stripped!
An angel perched upon the fence
With all the grace of indolence.
"Celestial bird," I cried, in pain,
"What vandal wrought this wreck? Explain."
He raised his eyelids as if tired:
"What is a Vandal?" he inquired.
"This is the Tree of Life. 'Twas stripped
By Durst and Siebe, who have shipped
"The bark across the Jordan--see?--
And sold it to a tannery."
"Alas," I sighed, "their old-time tricks!
That pavement, too, of golden bricks--
"They've gobbled that?" But with a scowl,
"You greatly wrong them," said the fowl:
"'Twas Gilleran did that, I fear--
Head of the Street Department here."
"What! what!" cried I--"you let such chaps
Come here? You've Satan, too, perhaps."
"We had him, yes, but off he went,
Yet showed some purpose to repent;
"But since your priests and parsons filled
The place with those their preaching killed"--
(Here Siebe passed along with Durst,
Psalming as if their lungs would burst)--
"He swears his foot no more shall press
('Tis cloven, anyhow, I guess)
"Our soil. In short, he's out on strike--
But devils are not all alike."
Lo! Gilleran came down the street,
Pressing the soil with broad, flat feet!
NIMROD
There were brave men, some one has truly said,
Before Atrides (those were mostly dead
Behind him) and ere you could e'er occur
Actaeon lived, Nimrod and Bahram-Gur.
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