When the great afternoon blows about the mind,
And men lean sideways over gulfs of headlines peering,
And the horns go berserk in the national bosom,
And something is decidedly wrong with the steering-
You should not have come to the movie tonight!
When the future is like an animal breathing
In the halls of the high schools, young with yearning,
And the leopard spots turn in the sockets of knowledge,
And the radio dial is quietly burning-
There’s a red light burning there-over the door!
When the road hides its head in the bedroom mirror
And the restaurant eye is disconsolate on the streets,
When the cannon boom the discovery of the planet
At the cheeks of dining rooms, up terraces of sheets-
The air is heavy with the presence of the faces!
When the blind sell newspapers and the lame read them,
When the nations stir in their beds while the sirens
Set the match of the age to the hair of the past
Standing like a scarecrow that daunts no tyrants—
Look for the exit-go look for it now!
But what if you find that the exit was painted
And the make-believe screen is real with the fleets
And the wave of navies breaks over the eye line
And opens its gunfire on you in your seats?
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