The Return

Gwendolyn MacEwen

I gave you many names and masks
And longed for you in a hundred forms
And I was warned the masks would fall
And the forms would be left with an empty name

(For that was the way the world went,
For that was the way it had to be,
To grow, and in growing lose you utterly)

But grown, I inherit you, and you
Renew your first and final form in me,
And though some masks have fallen
And many names have vanished back into my pen
Your face bears the birth-marks I recognize in time
You stand beforew mw now, unchanged

(For this is the way it has to be;
To perceive you in an act of faith
Though it is you who have inherited me)

Carol Wilson