In Passage Tropical

Eda Lou Walton

This was the adopted
Not, as you wished, your own.
Your orphan left behind in bed
Knew it was arctic there;
Not in such rarefied and chilling air
Could the magnolia flare.
In passage tropical
You were, though young, dark seeded in
A lonely bitterness;
Nor spell was that could graft your ripening there
Nor, as yet, Gabriel.
Bred to a harried granite
And the stunted apple
And a stale penitence
You, even in innocence, knew already
How through a gate of ivory and horn
A child's dreams flew;
Even in boyhood it was far too late
For arctic or tropic, hot, cold
Angel or adversary, love and hate
To heal the homesick born.