Poems (Piatt)/Volume 1/Sometime

by Sarah Piatt

For works with similar titles, see Sometime.

SOMETIME.

Well, either you or I,
 After whatever is to say is said,
Must see the other die,
 Or hear, through distance, of the other dead,
Sometime.

And you or I must hide
 Poor empty eyes and faces, wan and wet
With Life's great grief, beside
 The other's coffin, sealed with silence, yet,
Sometime.

And you or I must look
 Into the other's grave, or far or near,
And read, as in a book,
 Writ in the dust, words we made bitter here,
Sometime.

Then, through what paths of dew,
 What flush of flowers, what glory in the grass,
Only one of us two,
 Even as a shadow walking, blind may pass,
Sometime!

And, if the nestling song
 Break from the bosom of the bird for love,
No more to listen long
 One shall be deaf below, one deaf above,
Sometime.

For both must lose the way
 Wherein we walk together, very soon:
One in the dusk shall stay,
 The other first shall see the rising moon,
Sometime.

Oh! fast, fast friend of mine!
 Lift up the voice I love so much, and warn;—
To wring faint hands and pine,
 Tell me I may be left forlorn, forlorn,
Sometime.

Say I may kiss through tears,
 For ever falling and for ever cold,
One ribbon from sweet years,
 One dear dead leaf, one precious ring of gold,
Sometime.

Say you may think with pain
 Of some slight grace, some timid wish to please
Some eager look half vain
 Into your heart, some broken sobs like these,
Sometime!