Parting: 1940

written by


« Reload image

Not knowing in what season this again
Not knowing when again the arms outyearning 
Nor the flung smile in eyes not knowing when

Not sure beyond all doubt of full return 
Not sure of time now nor the film’s reversal 
This all done opposite, the waif regathered

Like our lost parents in the blinded song
We bag in hand with wandering steps and slow 
Through suburbs take our solitary way

Not that all clouds are garrisoned and stung 
Not that horizons loom with coppered legions 
Not that the year is dark with weird condition

All who parted in all days looked back
Saw the white face, the waving. And saw the sea 
Not knowing in what season this again

For well they knew, the parters in all evenings 
Druid and Roman and the rocked Phoenician: 
The blood flows one imposed way, and no other

© Daniel Nester