Edna St. Vincent Millay




Sonnet 5

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,
     That you were gone, not to return again --
Read from the back-page of a paper, say,
     Held by a neighbor in a subway train,
How at the corner of this avenue
     And such a street (so are the papers filled)
A hurrying man, who happened to be you,
     At noon to-day had happened to be killed “
I should not cry aloud “ I could not cry
     Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place “ 
I should but watch the station lights rush by
     With a more careful interest on my face; 
Or raise my eyes and read with greater care
Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.