William Carlos Williams

From “Root Buds”

ALL those treasures that lie in the little bolted box whose tiny space is

Mightier than the room of the stars, being secret and filled with dreams:

All those treasures—I hold them in my hand—are straining continually

Against the sides and the lid and the two ends of the little box in which I guard them;

Crying that there is no sun come among them this great while and that they weary of shining;

Calling me to fold back the lid of the little box and to give them sleep finally.

But the night I am hiding from them, dear friend, is far more desperate than their night!

And so I take pity on them and pretend to have lost the key to the little house of my treasures;

For they would die of weariness were I to open it, and not be merely faint and sleepy

As they are now.