Wanting to be myself, alone,
Between the lit house and the town
I took the road, and at the bridge
Turned back and walked the way I'd come.
Three times I took that lonely stretch,
Three times the dark trees closed me round,
The night absolved me of my bonds
Only my footsteps held the ground.
My mother and my daughter slept,
One life behind and one before,
And I that stood between denied
Their needs in shutting-to the door.
And walking up and down the road
Knew myself, separate and alone,
Cut off from human cries, from pain,
And love that grows about the bone.
Too brief illusion! Thrice for me
I heard the co*k crow on the hill,
And turned the handle of the door
Thinking I knew his meaning well.