Your Absence

I visited the place where
We last met, nothing was changed;
The gardens were well-tended
The fountains sprayed their usual steady jet.
There was no sign that anything had ended
And nothing to instruct me forget…

The thoughtless birds that shook
Out of trees, singing an ecstasy
I could not share
Played cunning in my thoughts
Surely in these pleasures there could not be pain to bear
Or any discord shake the level breeze
It was because the place was just the same
That made your absence seem
A savage force for under all the gentleness
There came and earthquake
Tremor. Fountain, birds and grass were shaken by the
Thinking of your name.