Melody In A Restaurant

The cigarette smoke loops and slides above us, Dipping and swirling as the waiter passes. You strike a match and stare upon the flame. The tiny firelight leaps in your eyes a moment And dies away as silently as it came. This melody, you say, has certain voices— They rise like nereids from a river, singing, Lift white faces, and dive to darkness again. Wherever you go you bear this river with you: A leaf falls, and it flows, and you have pain. So says the tune to you—but what to me ? What to the waiter, as he pours your coffee? The violinist who suavely draws his bow ? That man, who folds his paper, overhears it. A thousand dreams revolve and fall and flow. Someone there is who sees a virgin stepping Down marble stairs to a deep tomb of roses: At the last moment she lifts remembering eyes. Green leaves blow down; the place is checked with shadows; A long-drawn murmur of rain goes down the skies. And oaks are stripped and bare, and smoke with lightning; And clouds are blown and torn upon high forests; And the great sea shakes its walls. And then falls silence And through long silence falls This melody once more: Down endless stairs she goes, as once before. So says the tune to him—but what to me? What are the worlds I see? What shapes fantastic, terrible dreams? I go my secret way, down secret alleys. My errand is not so simple as it seems.