Читать книгу No One Can Stem the Tide - Jane Tyson Clement - Страница 23

17

(TO R.A.C.)

The world will find me wiser and more kind

when you have gone; I’ve read my lesson well,

taking the best of you there was to learn,

seeing, though briefly, through your kindling eyes.

A child was fishing, and we stopped to see;

you climbed a cherry tree; we stayed beside

a colored beggar; and you showed me where

the periwinkle pushed up through the sod;

we watched one crooked moon break from the hills,

and saw a dark plane rise to merge with stars;

we talked until night turned around to light;

we laughed at nothing and at everything;

and when I sang somewhere within the house,

I stopped – to hear your music answering.

I cannot shut the door, and make an end,

and change into the old self: that would be

a true betrayal. It is best to take

all that you taught me, and to make it mine.

The world will find me wiser and more kind –

no brittle bitterness, no sterile hate

stays in these streets that you have walked of late.

I fear no evil, and my victory

gives me the lands wherein you made me free.