Donald Hall




The Wish

I keep her weary ghost inside me.
“Oh, let me go.” I hear her crying.
“Deep in your dark you want to hide me
And so perpetuate my dying.
        I can’t undo
        The grief that you
Weep by the stone where I am lying.
               Oh, let me go.”

By work and women half distracted,
I endure the day and sleep at night
To watch her dying reenacted
When the faint dawn descends like twilight.
        How can I let
        This dream forget
Her white withdrawal from my sight.
              And let her go?

Her body while I watch grows smaller;
Her face recedes, her kiss is colder.
Watching her disappear, I call her
Again and again as I grow older
        While somewhere deep
        In the catch of sleep
I hear her cry, when I reach to hold her,
              “Oh, let me go.”