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Homing Swallows

by Claude McKay, 1922

Swift swallows sailing from the Spanish main,
  O rain-birds racing merrily away
From hill-tops parched with heat and sultry plain
  Of wilting plants and fainting flowers, say—

When at the noon-hour from the chapel school
  The children dash and scamper down the dale,
Scornful of teacher's rod and binding rule
  Forever broken and without avail,

Do they still stop beneath the giant tree
  To gather locusts in their childish greed,
And chuckle when they break the pods to see
  The golden powder clustered round the seed?

Published in Harlem Shadows
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