Always In the Window
ALWAYS IN THE WINDOW
Child gazing longing in toyshop window
Learns to stop wanting and simply pretend,
Like watching queen a smile bestow
Or leaning on fair-weather friend.
Constantly holding back her promise
She seems to move ‘cross starry sky.
Smiles she through my dreams in darkness
And dims the sun at noonday high.
In the loneliness of childhood
I gazed at her by clear night:
My hope not changed, not understood -
Enchantment through the window bright.
In the crowded years of older age
At her beauty I’m lost for speech:
She yet continues to engage
But always too far out of reach.
So far away, too strange to reach.
In deafened glass I hear no message;
My face can touch her hand; but each
One real - or simply longing image?
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