Sara Teasdale — Since There Is No Escape

Since there is no escape, since at the end        &nbsp My body will be utterly destroyed, This hand I love as I have loved a friend,        &nbsp This body I tended, wept with and enjoyed; Since there is no escape even for me        &nbsp Who love life with a love too sharp to bear: The scent of orchards in the rain, the sea        &nbsp And hours alone too still and sure for prayer— Since darkness waits for me, then all the more Let me go down as waves sweep to the shore        &nbsp In pride; and let me sing with my last breath; In these few hours of light I lift my head; Life is my lover—I shall leave the dead        &nbsp If there is any way to baffle death.