Another Conversation

The conversation of prayers about to be said
By the child going to the bed and the man on the stairs
Who climbed to his dying love in her high room
The one not caring to whom in his sleep he will move
And the other full of tears that she will be dead

Turns in the dark on the sound they know will arise
Into the answering skies from the green ground
From the man on the stairs and the child by his bed
The sound about to be said in two prayers
For the sleep in a safe land and the love who dies

Will be the same grief flying. Whom shall they calm
Shall the child sleep unharmed or the man be crying
The conversation of prayers about to be said
Turns on the quick and the dead and the man on the stairs
To night shall find no dying but alive and warm

In the fire of his care his love in the high room
And the child not caring to whom he climbs his prayer
Shall drown in a grief as deep as his true grave.
And mark the dark eyed wave through the eyes of sleep
Dragging him up the stairs to the one who lies dead