"MOTHER, he walks by the Windy Gate, As though for my broken tryst a-wait." "Daughter, I tell you he died last night When I kept your tryst by lantern light." "Mother, I know you murdered him: But he thought you were I by the lantern dim. "When I stole shivering past the place He held me with his hollow gaze. "His shape was thin as the edge of your knife, And he clasped a formless bundle of life. "'Lo' said he, 'for your heart a thorn: This is our child that shall be born. "'My deceit and your deceit, How we sully this soul of it.' "Mother, I cannot bear the thought. Cannot you tell him I killed him not?" "Foolish babble and nothing said: Daughter, I tell you the dead are dead." |