BIRTHDAY VERSE Poem by Herman de Coninck

You never said anything. I always had to ask.
If you loved me. & you gave me a kiss.
If it was safe that first time,
& another kiss.
& a little later if I was doing it right
& a kiss, O.

You never said anything, always said it with your eyes.
Your eyes that stayed behind in your face
alone when I left you;
your eyes after crying:
you weren't there,
you looked at me like faraway places,
& I had to go there,

& once I had got that far,
the eyes that you used to say ‘darling',
looking to see if it didn't change
on its way to me.

& when you lay by the road in the meadow,
O what all hadn't you broken,
your legs, your ribs, your eyes, me.
You never said anything, always said it with your eyes,
the way you lay there dying,
eyeing,

& your eyes that your son has in now,
that he uses to say: don't go -
you never said anything, he says it, & you look at me.

Translation:The estate of James Holmes