The worst thing that can happen –
to let the child go;
but you must not say so
or else it may happen.
The stranger looms in the way
holding an olive-twig.
The child’s not very big;
he is beginning to cry.
How can you stand by?
A cloud crushes the hill.
Everything stands still.
Everything moves away.
The stranger is still a stranger
but the child is not your child.
Too soon, before he’s old,
he may become a stranger.
He is his own child.
He has a way to go.
Others have lived it through:
watch, and turn cold.