Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Emigration

 

She went on a liner; we waved and waved and cried.

The ship’s horn blasted out its great bulky voice

and moved away from the quay. We watched her face

till it was indistinct, her frame till it was indistinct,

the throng of passengers hanging over the rail till they

were indistinct, the ship diminishing in size slowly slowly,

till no more than a dot on the horizon, and then it was gone.


I looked at the great emptiness that is the ocean;

it was the same emptiness she was leaving behind her.

Not such a death for her with the warming promise of her future,

but the saddest for us who watched her diminish like a birth rescinded.

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