Substratum

Fire masked by falling snow,

love is not enough, I know:

fiercer sources underneath

have that burning core for sheath.

Though the governing heart decree

what the bloodstream's tide shall be,

unaware, our pulses ride

out of Ocean's stronger tide,

Not that strength will falter here,

constant in its war with fear,

or your steady household arm

fail beneath time's load of harm.

But the struggles, mine and yours

and the worse our kind endures,

pierce our surest faith, to reach

strength not even love can teach.

Passionate, unreconciled,

stitch the garments for our child

with that rhythm Ocean gave

life engendered in its wave.

Antedating civil shame,

nurse him at volcanic flame;

rear him at that social hearth

rock-built on the upheaved earth.