Page 7 - Contrast1963v7n1

I AM YOUTH

I'm the stranger, the drifter, the walker by night,
The dreamer of dreams, the singer of songs,

The searcher of darkness, the seeker of light,
The warrior, the prophet, the righter of wrongs.

am the builder, destroyer, cursed,
Cursed by the past and the future alike;

am the last and the middle and first,
Bud at the flowering, fruit coming ripe.

I'm the rider of Pegasus, climber of Alps,
The laugher, the mourner, the wooer of life,

Lover of puppies and taker of scalps,
Despair of Convention, beloved of Strife.

Kay Liston

DEPARTURE

When you leave, you shall have to
be severed as the length of mightiest

cord--
F or so deeply are you entrenched.

The crowbars of a thousand men
will have to wrench you

screamIng--
As the pulling of the mandrake root.

The blood will fountain and the
wound shall leave a ghastly

scar.

But if you stay you will grind into
my soul, leaving a far more wretched

wound--
That does not heal.

Patricia Snyder

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