walt whitman's niece

last night or night before that

a seaman friend of mine

walked up to a big old building

and would not have walked up the stairs

if there had not have been two girls

and i recall a door

a big long room

i remember a deep blue rug

a girl took down a book of poems

and as she read i laid my head

down in her lap

well

my seaman buddy and his girl moved off after a couple of pages

and there i was

all night long

laying and listening and forgetting the poems

and as well as i could recall

or my seaman buddy could recollect

the girl had told us that she was a niece of walt whitman

but not which niece

and it takes a night and a girl

and a book of this kind

a long

long time to find its way back

last night or night before that

a seaman friend of mine

walked up to a big old building

and would not have walked the stairs

if there had not been two girls

and i recall a door

a big long room

i remember a deep blue rug

a girl took down a book of poems

and as she read i laid my head

down in her lap