Poems (Mansfield)/The Meeting
THE MEETING
We started speaking,Looked at each other, then turned away.The tears kept rising to my eyesBut I could not weep.I wanted to take your handBut my hand trembled.You kept counting the daysBefore we should meet again.But both of us felt in our heartsThat we parted for ever and ever. The ticking of the little clock filled the quiet room."Listen," I said. "It is so loud,Like a horse galloping on a lonely road,As loud as that—a horse galloping past in the night."You shut me up in your arms.But the sound of the clock stifled our hearts' beating.You said, "I cannot go: all that is living of meIs here for ever and ever."Then you went. The world changed. The sound of the clock grew fainter,Dwindled away, became a minute thing.I whispered in the darkness, "If it stops, I shall die."1911.