For Your Sake
A Poem
By JOSE ESPINEL
For your sake,
Child of present Troubles,
Those – from kind intent refracted,
An aberration or malpractice of
That impulse to live,
I wish you would know this:
That in the parent’s absence peace persists
Pressed as blissful comfort into lifeless things;
The afternoon’s warmth,
The melody’s trill,
The lambent voice’s call
Communing heartfelt dreams.
That where shields have sounded
Hate’s telltale call
Marking souls withered by
A brutish scornful root –
Some orchards since sown
Nest warblers who sing
Without fear of the blue-jay.
That Time, the passive fellow
Who inherited his appointment –
Is disinclined to catch spears:
So falls to us this thankless post.
Uneasy are we, and question
Whether mortal hands ought –
Or can – shape mortal lives.
That the answer is told
At close of day,
When with curtains drawn
And scripts run through,
Nothing remains but lonesome review:
And in dreams we meet our past
And wish to dream again!
Jose Espinel ‘20 (espinel@college.harvard.edu) writes poetry for the Indy.