Thank God I’m safe. Free of lamentation—
Now that I see
She’s not the one for me.
Oh God, had she been,
I would have had to cross the sea, and I cannot swim.
I’m safe now. Love would have meant
An hour or two of kissing and then wondering where she went.
When I saw her from the back, her long hair
And her tall shape made me prepare
For love everlasting, but when she turned around
I saw her face was a little too round,
Thank God! I knew then there would be no insurmountable trick
Of children, the broken life in the night, worried sick,
When the night crawls and spreads its alarms
As we hold the infinite child in our arms.
I knew there would be safety; there would be no way
For the visionary lightning to wake me, though I had slept all day.