A Woman of Thirty

by Marjorie Allen Seiffert

Harlequin, I might have loved you
But I could not make you gay!

IV. THE CURTAIN

I do not fear
You, or me, or death,

There now is nothing left to fear
But this,
This curtain of blackness.

Once I feared you,
And all you thought and felt

And all you said and did:
I feared myself,
And all you made me think and feel
And say and do—

Now I no longer fear
Thinking, feeling, saying, doing,

Nor blankness, silence, apathy, torpor—

I do not fear
You, or me, or death—

I only fear
This curtain of blackness
Which is your absence.