For you, sis.
SIster, Come Soon
Sister, come soon, come soon, this is the house you seek,
Come today or come tomorrow or come next week,
The garden gate is unbolted and the door ajar;
Come early, come early my star.
Do not delay, sister, time is not standing still,
The leaves turn brown on the trees and the moorbirds honk on the hill,
Jupiter peers at me boldly with beady eye;
Sister draw nigh.
Sister, the bridal gown lies fading in Father’s trunk,
The little boys are away and the wine is drunk,
The Post Office man has taken away the telephone;
Come early, come early, my own.
Come as I lie in bed and lay your hand on my brow,
Once it was petal-smooth, rhinoceros-wrinkled now;
We shall sit at evening watching dim embers burn.
O sister, return.
Lank grows the grass in the yard that the goats of childhood cropped,
The roof has fallen in and the clocks have stopped.
Time has destroyed it all, all that Time can destroy;
Come early, come early my joy.
R.P.Lister. 1914-
|