Swizzle Stick

Must I Remain

April 24--- Text — use a short quotation in your poem, imbedded or as epigraph



Well they are gone, and here must I remain,
this cabin now my prison. I have lost
the pleasure of the hike, & must refrain
from anger or resentment. At what cost

come genes with secrets not to be undone,
& pain that lingers lovingly & full?
My friends descend the Empire Pass, the sun
behind them where its heat can have no pull,

they cross the rickety, rustic bridge, then down
to Dante's Glen, where they will take their tea
on mossy rocks among the ferns. In town,
I take my tea alone, but I can see

the bushland, hear the birds & know my friends,
my cabin is a haven, in the end.




The opening line has been taken from This Lime Tree Bower My Prison by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, from which I also stole theme/s & ideas - thank you Coleridge!