The Black Christ & Other Poems/Therefore, Adieu

by Countee Cullen

Therefore, Adieu

NOW you are gone, and with your unreturning goesAll I had thought in spite of you would stay;Now draws forever to its unawakening closeThe beauty of the bright bandanna'd day.

Now sift in ombrous flakes and revolutions slowMy dreams descending from my heady sky.The balm I kept to cool my grief in (leaves of snow)Now melts, with your departure flowing by.

I knew, indeed, the straight unswerving track the sunTook to your face (as other ecstasies)Yet I had thought some faith to me in them; they runFrom me to you as fly to honey, bees.

Avid, to leave me neither fevered joy nor ache,Only of soul and body vast unrest. Sun, moon, and stars should be enough; why must you takeThe feeling of the heart out of the breast?

Now I who dreamed before I died to shoot one shaftOf courage from a warped and crooked bow,Stand utterly forsaken, stripped of that small craftI had, watching with you all prowess go.