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 | Leaves of grass. |  |
TO ONE SHORTLY TO DIE.
1 FROM all the rest I single out you, having a
message for you:
You are to die — Let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate,
I am exact and merciless, but I love you — There is no escape for you.
2 Softly I lay my right hand upon you — you just feel it,
I do not argue — I bend my head close, and half- envelop it,
I sit quietly by — I remain faithful,
I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
I absolve you from all except yourself, spiritual, bodily — that is eternal,
(The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious.)
3 The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions!
Strong thoughts fill you, and confidence — you smile!
You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,
You do not see the medicines — you do not mind the weeping friends — I am with you,
I exclude others from you — there is nothing to be commiserated,
I do not commiserate — I congratulate you.
You are to die — Let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate,
I am exact and merciless, but I love you — There is no escape for you.
2 Softly I lay my right hand upon you — you just feel it,
I do not argue — I bend my head close, and half- envelop it,
I sit quietly by — I remain faithful,
I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
I absolve you from all except yourself, spiritual, bodily — that is eternal,
(The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious.)
3 The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions!
Strong thoughts fill you, and confidence — you smile!
You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,
You do not see the medicines — you do not mind the weeping friends — I am with you,
I exclude others from you — there is nothing to be commiserated,
I do not commiserate — I congratulate you.
| Leaves of grass. | |