As I Walked Out One Evening
As I walked out one evening,
Walking down
Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields
of harvest wheat.
And down by the brimming river
I heard a
lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
"Love
has no ending.
"I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China
and Africa meet
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the
salmon sing in the street.
"I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded
and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese
about the sky.
"The years shall run like rabbits
For in my
arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages
And the
first love of the world."
But all the clocks in the city
Began to
whirr and chime:
"O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot
conquer Time.
"In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where
Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs
when you would kiss.
"In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life
leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or
to-day.
"Into many a green valley
Drifts the
appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the
diver's brilliant bow.
"O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them
in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder
what you've missed.
"The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert
sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to
the land of the dead.
"Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the
Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer
And Jill
goes down on her back.
"O look, look in the mirror,
O look in
your distress;
Life remains a blessing
Although you
cannot bless.
"O stand, stand at the window
As the tears
scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your
crooked heart."
It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers
they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming
And the deep
river ran on.
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