The Town Between

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A WALL impregnable surrounds
  The Town wherein I dwell;
No man may scale it and it has
  Two gates that guard it well.

One opened long ago, and I
  A vagrant soul, slipped through,
Bewildered and forgetting all
  The wider world I knew.

I love the Town, the narrow ways,
  The common, yellow sun,
The handclasp and the jesting and
  The work that must be done!

I shun the other gate that stands
  Beyond the crowded mart--
I need but glance that way to feel
  Cold fingers on my heart!

It stands alone and somberly
  Within a shaded place,
And every man who turns that way
  Has quiet on his face.

And every man must rise and leave
  His pleasant homely door
To vanish through this silent gate
  And enter in no more--

Yet--once--I saw its opening throw
  A brighter light about
And glimpsed strange glory on the brow
  Of someone passing out!

I wonder if Outside may be
  One fair and great demesne
Where both gates open, careless of
  The Town that lies between?

© Isabel Ecclestone Mackay