Il Va Neiger...

three poems

IL VA NEIGER...

A few days, and the snow will come. I recall

Last year and all my sadness beside

The fire. If you had asked, "What is it?"

I would have said: "Nothing. Let me alone."

I asked much, last year, in my room,

While the heavy snow fell outside.

I asked without answer. Now, as then,

I smoke my pipe with the amber mouthpiece.

The old oak of the bureau smells good,

As it always has. But I was a fool,

Because these things can't change and it's a pose

To want to drive away the things we know.

Why, therefore, do we think and talk? It's funny:

Our tears and kisses-they don't speak

And yet we understand, and the steps

Of a friend are softer than soft words.

They baptized the stars without thinking

That they didn't have need of names, and the

Numbers that prove that the bright comets will pass

In the shadows don't force them to pass.

And now, even, where is all my old sadness

Of last year? I can hardly remember.

I would have said: "Nothing. Let me alone,"

If you had come to ask me, "What is it?"