Of Careers And Glaciers
By John Delonas
I once thought that we could meet
And hold our own against time
And other enemies.
But it is apparent now,
That when we passed,
Each locked in our immensity,
That we were destined to spend
Our declining days in warmer waters,
Sloughing off into the sea,
From time to time,
The beauty and the talent
That would have marked you and me--
Sparkling and white in arctic currents;
Locked in some glacial press,
Beneath the northern lights:
Forever as sure as
Coldness is eternity.
But ambition tore us loose
From that splendid isolation
Where we could have loved
Wrapped in each other's arms--
But not losing one inch
Of ourselves to appetite's heat.
So we would have sustained and lived,
Had we not sought each separately.
The better things in warmer streams,
That washed our crests
And inundated our pride:
Lost in another's love and warmth,
Lost in the world's immensity.