5. Kindliness

WHEN love has changed to kindliness—

Oh, love, our hungry lips, that press

So tight that Time’s an old god’s dream

Nodding in heaven, and whisper stuff

Seven million years were not enough

To think on after, make it seem

Less than the breath of children playing,

A blasphemy scarce worth the saying,

A sorry jest, “When love has grown

To kindliness—to kindliness!”…

And yet—the best that either’s known

Will change, and wither, and be less,

At last, than comfort, or its own

Remembrance. And when some caress

Tendered in habit (once a flame

All heaven sang out to) wakes the shame

Unworded, in the steady eyes

We’ll have,—that day, what shall we do?

Being so noble, kill the two

Who’ve reached their second-best? Being wise,

Break cleanly off, and get away.

Follow down other windier skies

New lures, alone? Or shall we stay,

Since this is all we’ve known, content

In the lean twilight of such day,

And not remember, not lament?

That time when all is over, and

Hand never flinches, brushing hand;

And blood lies quiet, for all you’re near;

And it’s but spoken words we hear,

Where trumpets sang; when the mere skies

Are stranger and nobler than your eyes;

And flesh is flesh, was flame before;

And infinite hungers leap no more

In the chance swaying of your dress;

And love has changed to kindliness.