The Man Against the Sky

"That's all, my son. Were I to talk for half a hundred years
I'd never clear away from there the cloud that never clears.

And when you met, you found his eyes were always on your shoes,

As if they did the talking when he asked you for the news.

Time has made the two of them the fuel of one flame
And all we have of them is now a legend and a name.

All you say is easy, but so far from being true

I'm over here to tell you what you are, Jane Wayland,

"Tell me what you're doing over here, John Gorham,
Sighing hard and seeming to be sorry when you're not;

You'll praise him for the best of birds,
Not knowing what the Eagle thinks.

But what it is you know, you keep
As dark as ingots in a chest.

"When Reason beckons you to pause,
You laugh and say that you know best;