Poem by Claude McKay

Absence

Your words dropped into my heart like pebbles into a pool, 
Rippling around my breast and leaving it melting cool. 

Your kisses fell sharp on my flesh like dawn-dews from the limb, 
Of a fruit-filled lemon tree when the day is young and dim. 

But a silence vasty-deep, oh deeper than all these ties 
Now, through the menacing miles, brooding between us lies. 

And more than the songs I sing, I await your written word, 
To stir my fluent blood as never your presence stirred.

1. Flirtation
2. Home Thoughts
3. The Barrier
4. North and South
5. The Spanish Needle

Capel Lofft Absence ("I love: and day by day, as absent, pine")

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