To Jake
You are turned wraith. Your supple, flitting hands, As formless as the night wind’s moan, Beckon across the years, and your heart’s pain Fades surely as a stainèd stone. And yet you will not let me rest, crying And calling down the night to me A thing that when your body moved and glowed, Living, you could not make me see. Lean down your homely, mist-encircled head Close, close above my human ear, And tell me what of pain among the dead— Tell me, and I will try to hear.
Credit
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on September 1, 2018, by the Academy of American Poets.
About this Poem
“To Jake” was published in Jake (Boni and Liveright, 1921).
Date Published
01/01/1921