AfroPoets Famous Writers
Letter
It was as though you struggled against
fierce current jagged with debris
to save me then. I am desperate still.
Old age-the elegy time-that brings
a sense of shores receding? But no.
What rends my spirit like beast-
angel, angel-beast has for
a lifetime nurtured and tormented me.
-This tells you nothing, tells you all,
leaves unresolved a thing absurd,
in truth grotesque. You have risked pain
because of it, are yet compassionate.
I will no longer ask for more
than you have freely given or can give.
Written by Robert Hayden (1913-1980)
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