I cannot live with You-
It would be Life_
And Life is over there-
Behind the Shelf-
The Sexton keeps the Key to
Putting up
Our Life- His Porcelain_
Like a Cup-
Discarded of the Housewife-
Quaint - or Broke-
A newer Sevres pleases-
Old Ones crack-
I could not die-with You-
For One must wait
To shut the Other's Gaze down-
You- could not-
And I- Could I stand by
And see You -freeze-
Without my Right of Frost-
Death's privilege?
Nor could I rise-with You-
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus'-
That New Grace
Grow plain-and foreign
On my homesick Eye-
Except that You than He
Shone closer by-
They'd just Us-How-
For You- served Heaven-
You know,
Or sought to-
I could not-
Because You saturated Sight-
And I had no more Eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise
And were You lost, I would be-
Though My Name
Rang loudest
On the Heavenly fame-
And were You- saved-
And I- condemned to be
Where You were not-
That self- were Hell to Me-
So We must meet apart-
You there- I - here-
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are- and Prayer-
And that White Sustenance-
Despair-
Emily D.
