Hot Corn!

HOT CORN (884 – incomplete)
                              I.
A midnight cry through the ? air[?]
     Like a ?? ?? is borne
The voice of ?? ?? and ??
From the ?? ?? ?? ?? and ??
     Of strength and beauty by hunger shorn,
          “Hot corn! Hot corn!”

There’s a tale of woe in her tremulous cry
     Of a little heart forlorn,
Its yearning for mother love put by
While ?-luted famine is glaring nigh
     ?? ?? at bay by that shrilly >
          “Hot corn! Hot corn!”

Now blent with the tolling of midnight bells
     And now with the jeer of scorn
Or the roar of mirth from obscenity’s hello
Or wealth’s gay portals, that yet upswells
     Thrills like a pang though bosoms torn
          “Hot corn! Hot corn!”

O sad with the old joys chilled to see
     Of the home where she was born,
Hungry in soul and flesh, orphaned twice—
By pitiless death and by deadly vice,—
     Her life to that one sharp cry is worn,
          “Hot corn! Hot corn!”

                              II.
Of all the tones on the midnight air
     That single cry is dumb
But go to the drunkard’s filthy lair,
Ascend with care that slippery stair
     And list to a low breath’s dying huml—
          “Will he come? Will he come?”

“He gave me bread and his words were mild,
     And I thought of our other home
He blessed me, a poor forsaken child,
With the good smile that on me he smiled;
     O answer me Mother, why stand so dumb;
          Will he come? Will he come?

“Ah yes, he has come, that voice is his
     Which strikes on my senses numb
Bend nearer! Yet nearer for one last kiss!
O, my fluttering soul, thank God for this!
     And hark: the wings of the Angels hum!
          They come! They come!

That voice is stilled with the poor heart there
     But the wail is never dumb
That appeals from want and crime and despair
To the pittless earth and the hollow air
     Till the Judgement with its thunder-drum
          Shall come! Shall come!