Perpetual night rings quiet ‘bout mine lot.
A temp’rate, welcome place does make my cot.
I saw this turbid darkness once before;
An endless sky, a black and boundless shore.
My fleshy cavern yields the softest pile –
Pillowed walls do my new-formed soul beguile,
In perfect warmth. No time frame makes its cage,
Of war and Fortune. She’s no wiles to wage,
Time’s rouge seductress keeps her distance neat,
For pink enough’s my pulsed and poignant seat.
Her daily bread mine daily is; her breath
Does like a cradle hold me fast from Death.
My every hour does throb with some far drum.
(A solemn steady tread t’wards hope to come.)
This fleshy hammock most is very still,
Yet ofttimes comes a blink of dizz’ing thrill –
I feel no ground, yet soft beneath me shifts
Like mountains quake, some sense of falls and lifts.
This muscly cot, I seldom spare, still dost
Grow slim and snug. She minds it not, I trust
When from the precious space below yields quick
A timid, but sure certain, infant’s kick.
(I cannot tell if ‘twas a dream of kind,
But one bright figure stays my simple mind.
‘Twas with a silvery voice and words of cheer –
‘Good news,’ he spoke, ‘doth present cometh here.’)
There cometh pressing shapes I cannot see,
But carry love and patience through to me.
Beyond this quiet realm, I chance to hear
The tremb’ling notes that drip with fragrant fear –
I cannot stand! I cannot swim and take
This distant pain. T’will soon my poor heart break.
Some days lie long and stagnant. Still, I feel
A certain stirring wakes, in flesh concealed.
And now, some outward thing has whirled a storm!
No more the stillness of my early form.
My cot expands, my waking restless grows,
As th’unseen path t’wards some place craggy goes.
There is no room. My little space, my source
Has no more room for whate’er be mine course.
No room – my God! Can this my purpose be?
P’raps this cramped place is not the end of me.
What noises crow? What sounds of life are these
That brawl and bleat, and of outside, do tease?
Here it comes – oh, Hark! What brute force is this?
Please, wait – there is so much I’m due to miss!
And… oh. Oh, such sweet eyes of depth and light
Do meet me, on this my first Earthly night.
