The Sequel to a Reminiscence

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Not in the street and not in the square,
 The street and square where you went and came;
With shuttered casement your house stands bare,
 Men hush their voice when they speak your name.

I, too, can play at the vain pretence,
 Can feign you dead; while a voice sounds clear
In the inmost depths of my heart: Go hence,
 Go, find your friend who is far from here.

Not here, but somewhere where I can reach!
 Can a man with motion, hearing and sight,
And a thought that answered my thought and speech,
 Be utterly lost and vanished quite?

Whose hand was warm in my hand last week? . .
 My heart beat fast as I neared the gate-
Was it this I had come to seek,
 "A stone that stared with your name and date;"

A hideous, turfless, fresh-made mound;
 A silence more cold than the wind that blew?
What had I lost, and what had I found?
 My flowers that mocked me fell to the ground-
Then, and then only, my spirit knew.

© Amy Levy