The Town Between

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?