Helen Louise Birch

WHAT did you play?

Or have such melodies no names?

And were they played on ivory keys,

Or did your fingers find a way,

So, touch by touch,

To where the nerves of all my being

Stretched their uneasy length?

Did I look deep into your eyes,

Or were mine closed,

When sudden vision of some new world

Caught me in floods of light?

I laid my hand upon your arm

And felt the cool black curtain of your sleeve.

Why, when you left me,

Was I plunged in sorrow—

Weary of all known things,

Grey, languid, and too dull for thought?

Slowly the moments passed,

While still I leaned

Against the door which closed you out,

And felt no pain.