Delay

My feelings, my desire, my emotions, what to say - sometimes tears shed in solitude, sometimes speech give to myself by myself - - - they will never be felt by my smile and frame that I have framed in which the world sees me.

Delay !!

The radiance of the star that leans on me

Was shining years ago.

The light that now

Glitters up there my eyes may never see,

And so the time lag teases me with how

Love that loves now may not reach me until

Its first desire is spent.

The star’s impulse

Must wait for eyes to claim it beautiful

And love arrived may find us somewhere else.

-- Elizabeth Jennings