The Boy
in the Well
by Lafcadio
Down here,
deep in the darkness where even the hot sun is but a dream,
here have i made my home.
Here, in a hole hardly wide enough for a man to scream,
here, where naked i tread crystal cold waters,
here, alone, i endure my prison.
Yet even my thoughts are robbed from me
as they come,
one by one, distant voices calling down upon me
to ask my service.
Can
you help me,
Can
you help me?
they ask,
as they go on to relate
some problem they may have My
son has fallen ill,
that they wish me to deal with Could
you make him better?
or
ask of me impossible favors I
want to find my true love!
and then go,
sometimes never to return.
I often wonder
how many of these yearning lips
later praise me when their wishes come true,
extolling me for doing nothing
or cursing me for doing the same
when i fail to do for them
what they so feared to do for themselves,
and i pray - no, no not pray
for long ago did i cease to pray -
a prayer is after all but a wish
and all the wishes
floating down to my drenched ears
have not once allowed me to escape
my bitter tomb.
I can only wait and hope,
though even Hope has faded with time,
even she
has become shrouded in mists of doubt.
Now here you come,
a dark silhouette looming over my tiny world,
idling perhaps in a summer breeze
while some worry purses your brow.
To me, your face is vague,
as to your dreaming eyes
my gaunt figure is invisible,
but you lean atop the wall,
dangling one arm downward
as if to caress the darkness.
You gaze
into the blackness of the well
and seeing nothing,
touch your cheeks with a smile.
As your soft lips move,
i watch your dancing fingertips
so close to my own,
and slowly, desperately,
lift myself towards you.
My lungs, heavy with water,
cannot speak,
so silently i climb nearer salvation.
I outstretch a pale, feeble hand to thine
e'en as you turn away,
and grasp nothing as i clench my fist.
Once more forsaken,
i cling to the wall like an insect,
but my strength soon fails me
and down the moss i slide,
down, down into trembling waters
and beneath the shivering surface
where i shall sleep
forevermore.
