Caroling Dusk/Absence
For works with similar titles, see Absence.
ABSENCE[1]
Your words dropped into my heart like pebbles into a pool,Rippling around my breast and leaving it melting cool.
Your kisses fell sharp on my flesh like dawn-dews from the limbOf a fruit-filled lemon tree when the day is young and dim.
Like soft rain-christened sunshine, as fragile as rare gold lace,Your breath, sweet-scented and warm, has kindled my tranquil face.
But a silence vasty-deep, oh deeper than all these tiesNow, through the menacing miles, brooding between us lies.
And more than the songs I sing, I await your written word,To stir my fluent blood as never your presence stirred.
- ↑ From Harlem Shadows by Claude McKay, Copyright 1922, by Harcourt, Brace & Company, Inc.