Cross Roads

TO A PORCELAIN PUPPY DOG

     Oh, pudgy porcelain puppy dog from far-away Japan,
        I saw you in a shop to-day where lonesomely you
           sat
     Upon a velvet cushion that was colored gold and
           purple,
        Between a bowl of goldfish, and a sleeping wooden
           cat.

     I wonder what you thought about as stolidly you sat
           there,
        A grin of faint derision on your pudgy porcelain
           face;
     I wonder if you dreamed about some cherry blossom
           tea house,
        And if the goldfish bored you in their painted
           Chinese case?

     I wonder if you dreamed about the laughter of the
           geishas
        As languidly they danced across the shining
           lacquered floor,
     I wonder if your thoughts were with a purple clump
           of iris
        That bloomed, all through the summer, by the
           little tea house door?

     I wonder if you hated us who passed, you by unheeding,
     You who had known the temples of another, older
           land?
     And, oh, I wonder if you knew when I had paused
           beside you
        To pat you, porcelain puppy dog, that I could
           understand?