First and Last and Only: The poem I Wrote When I Was Fifteen

TALK OF MADMEN

Sad, it was, you lived upon the sea.

So far from the land…too far away from me.

You would not bring your boat to shore,

And me — I wouldn’t swim–

To greet you, yes;  To meet you –no!

Your thoughts were all too dim.

We said hello so often:  we talked like madmen do.

Yet could agree on nothing, but one and one is two.

It went on like that throughout our lives,

It never-ceased.

The almost-bliss of almost-compromise.

That gave us quiet peace.

Not peace!  Dreams of a derelict

That gnawed away at self-respect

Until we could no longer see

Perversions of integrity!

And now we stand and view the land

and sea … their fruits have equal gain.

Our hopes were not so far apart;

In fact — so much the same,

That we could build a good world now

Just let us try again!