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Home  »  The New Poetry  »  When You Come

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

When You Come

By Mary Aldis

WHEN you come tonight

To our small room

You will look and listen—

I shall not be there.

You will cry out your dismay

To the unheeding gods;

You will wait and look and listen—

I shall not be there.

There is a part of you I love

More than your hands in mine at rest;

There is a part of you I love

More than your lips upon my breast.

There is a part of you I wound

Even in my caress;

There is a part of you withheld

I may not possess.

There is a part of you I hate—

Your need of me

When you would be alone,

Alone and free.

When you come tonight

To our small room

You will look and listen—

I shall not be there.