CYNTHIA HUNTINGTON
“Whoever is alone will stay alone a long time.”
—RILKE, “Autumn Day”
Time will stop here. A man with a suitcase
going out and coming in. Opening a car door.
Whose wife and son cry at his goings
and again at his return, whose lives have stopped,
waiting for him to choose.
The one who turns away now will keep walking.
A child lies down in his bed and then is a man.
Whoever cannot love today will never love,
will never make the choice a man makes,
will not build a house on a hill or a church in the woods.
Whoever is alone will stay alone a long time,
will walk through dark rooms of his house
after midnight, listening for the sounds of cars
and for the wind in the trees, and morning will not come.