Page 23 of Collected Poems

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Else will stand. Heedless at first

I waved it aside as mere

elderly prattle that youth have to bear

till sharply one day it hit home to me

that never before, not even

once, did I hear mother speak

again in their little disputes once

he'd said it. From then began

my long unrest: what was this

Thing so unanswerable and why

was it dogged by that

relentless Other? My mother

proved no help at all nor did

my father whose sole reply

was just a solemn smile…. Quietly

later of its own will it showed

its face, so slowly, to me though

not before they'd long been dead—my

little old man and my mother

also—and showed me too how

utterly vain my private quest

had been. Flushed by success

I spoke one day in a trifling

row: you see, my darling (to

my wife) where Something

stands—no matter what—there

Something Else will take its

stand. I knew, she said; she

pouted her lips like a gun

in my face. She knew, she said,

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