A. Y. Winters

From “Monodies”

HE said: “Let the night

Sweep down with swirling gestures!

The nightwind leaps like a flame!”

And yet—

The firelight on the wall…..

“My heart is a cry in the night,”

He said,

“And all the world’s a dream!”

And yet—

The night sighs above me

Like the branches of a tree;

And it too wears a covering,

And, should it drop that covering,

Would doubtless rattle—

A gruesome skeleton…..

He said:

“You talk of peace—where is it?

The fire there

Has no peace. Now that choked sobbing—

Sobs caught low in the throat—

What does it want?”

And yet—

That is a shadowy crying

After things long forgot.

The fire moans to itself,

And leaps up without impetus,

And sinks—a spectral longing…..

Or—perhaps—is it

The fluttering of frightened hearts

Afraid to go?