November Dusk

Where like ghosts of verdant days

Whispering down,

Leaves in the November dusk

Drift and drown,

Stand two lovers, motionless

And apart

In their sturdy nakedness

Of the heart,

Two dark figures, side by side

Through the mist

Standing as though time had died

Since they kissed,

Whose deep roots, alive and sound

Blindly reach

Mingling in the fertile ground

Each with each —

Pray that we, when gaunt and old

Like bare trees

Through our common earth may hold

Close, like these!