I Will Not Leave You (Yes) Poem by Will Barber

Though the starlings mock you,
You must say, Yes
Though the long train of history leaves the station,
Though the children wave goodbye from distancing windows,
You must say, Yes:

Memory will have enough to do, without you
The future needs you not, nor any one,
But you must say, Yes, you
Have no right, not to follow on
In the wake of the green light,
In the wake of the red dawn
Following the pain or delight
That leads us on.
Confess: you must say, Yes,

No, I will not leave you,
I will not leave you alone,
We have gone too far
To part, now;
Oft I complained
And sometimes wept
I was beaten down
And lifted up before my time,
And again cast down,
But you forced me to say Yes.

And the tide rolls in, forever
Until the tide rolls out;
And I will not leave you
Even though you shout
Words of anger, or of fever
I bring sweet water to relieve you
On the long strand of a shore
Where we dwell forevermore
Hands clasped beneath the seaweed
Toes delving silver sand
Long hair flowing seaward
Fingers entwined.

And no, I will not leave you
This side of the moon:
A rising wind may blow
But we will cling here now,
In secret cove;
The tide swells on.
I will not leave you, yet, Love.

Have you seen, Love, how
The night rules our fate?
Sun came too early or too late,
And ne'er achieved the Now.

And no, I will not leave you:
Furture slain
Past, too
I will remain.

You must say Yes.
I whisper, Yes.

2009