THE RECLUSE
Heart Symphony for Dare
By Vrest Orton
There is no balm that time brings with the years…
The dullard days cure not my own dull pain,
When only thoughts of you do still remain.
Ah, ’tis a jest to allay children’s fears,
To say that time will right the heart’s arrears.
Why do they mock me? Can the heart contain
Your presence multiplied? Can I refrain
From crying lie…when such a lie appears?
Under glare of tropic sun,
Crowded sidewalk we
Stood upon. And no one passed,
No one jostled me.
Now you are gone. Oh words as few as four,
To think that they can carry such a power
To transmute light to darkness, yet no more
Than four small words to you. Oh for one hour!
What would I change for just one hour again?
I feel you as I see arbutus show,
I feel you in the warmth of summer rain,
You are in autumn colours, when they go
Somewhere, I know not where, yet would that I
Could, after you are gone return to you,
As after winter’s blight they blossom new
Into the spring again. I wonder why
To you no more than four small words are they…
They’re on my lips so many times a day.
In no dream I ever miss
You and I together,
Soft cheek, first kiss,
Light as a feather.
Before me is a picture that was you,
But only can I see your parted hair
Was short like mine. You could not then know who
Would once possess it and if you had known…
But then, it does not matter…it is true
Your lips are tight, your eyes are full of care.
In studio, late one night,
We thought to say good-bye.
You back to be a wife,
I home to die.
Gone is the life from beauty since you went,
It is no more than just a shining row
