Gypsies

Last night the gypsies came—

Nobody knows from where.

Where they've gone to nobody knows,

And nobody seems to care!

Between the trees on the old swamp road

I saw them round their fire:

Tattered children and dogs that barked

As the flames leaped high and higher;

There were black-eyed girls in scarlet shawls,

Old folk wrinkled with years,

Men with handkerchiefs round their throats

And silver loops in their ears.

Ragged and red like maple leaves

When frost comes in the fall,

The gypsies stayed but a single night;

In the morning gone were all—

Never a shaggy gypsy dog,

Never a gypsy child;

Only a burnt-out gypsy fire

Where danced that band so wild.

All gone and away,

Who knows where?

Only the wind that sweeps

Maple branches bare.