Valentine's Day at the Post Office

Visages in the slides
Of a Magic Lanthorn
Loom like fairy tale knights

Errant and enchanted
In an enormous hall
Among a wilderness

Of idle wanderers
Turned colony of ants.
Every letter we leave

Behind will find us fined.
The whole correspondence
Passes under the hall.

Now and then a woman,
Now and then an old man,
Head over heels, pell mell,

Tokens of the late storm,
Accidents, vanities,
But really a system

Of admirable order
All through the rolling years,
Dead Letter Offices'

Bradawls, corkscrews, bridles,
Spurs, tickets, lace, doll's things,
Carelessness, ignorance,

Miraculous, address
Tumbled with penny stamp,
Straight to proper parties,

Head of hieroglyphics,
Heart of going forward,
Filled nearly to the mouth,

Many hope we would be
And believe it, somehow,
One great source, Love, we are.