“TO-DAY I MISS YOU”

To-day I miss you... “Only for to-day,

Some little matter of hours and nothing more.”

That at least the worldly-wise folk say,

Who've never waited for the opening door,

The greeting look, the known step on the floor;

Who've never missed a loved one like a lover.

To-day I miss you. What to-morrow brings

Is the other side of all the stars, God knows!

Only to have you here, now evening swings

Its quiet shadow round the globe again,

And in our talk of old familiar things,

And in familiar gestures, turn of brain,

Looks, tone of voice, I may discern again

That union from which alone love grows.

We'd close the curtains;— while the world outside,

Noisily autumn, makes a sense of peace

Deeper within,— open the bookcase wide

And take a book out; then another book,

And then another.... “Here's a favourite, look!

We cannot pass him.”... Then from reading cease,

Gossip and laugh, with finger in the page,

And challenge thought with thought, and mind with mind

Each speaking freely, that we might increase

Some knowledge to which, singly, we were blind.

So goes the evening. Side by side we stand,

Dear friends and brothers, till, a sudden pause,

Or kindly, almost careless touch of hands,

Swings us to face each other, and we feel

Those deepest stirrings of the human heart

Man has no name for yet, those changeless laws

Of more than mating — that eternal part

Our body is aware of, and our brain,

Unchallenging with reason, must receive,

That sense of intimate wonder!— Now again,

The blinds are drawn; lamp, books, chairs, all retain

Familiar aspects, but, you absent, leave

The room all empty, empty all the day.