Sits listening to your volubility

And idling with an enervated grief.

The play does not begin until you say

Your last “good-night,” for you have only made

A swindled fantasy regain its parts.

Throughout the night you held an unseen blade

Upon your lap and trifled with its hilt,

And now you lift it with submissive dread.

Should you attack your loneliness and grief

Now that they are asleep? You shake your head.