New York Nocturnes and Other Poems

by Charles G.D. Roberts

 

At the Railway Station

 
Here the night is fierce with light,
   Here the great wheels come and go,
Here are partings, waitings, meetings,
   Mysteries of joy and woe.

Here is endless haste and change,
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   Here the ache of streaming eyes,
Radiance of expectant faces,
   Breathless askings, brief replies.

Here the jarred, tumultuous air
   Throbs and pauses like a bell,
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Gladdens with delight of greeting,
   Sighs and sorrows with farewell.

Here, ah, here with hungry eyes
   I explore the passing throng.
Restless I await your coming
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   Whose least absence is so long.

Faces, faces pass me by,
   Meaningless, and blank, and dumb,
Till my heart grows faint and sickens
   Lest at last you should not come.
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Then—I see you.  And the blood
   Surges back to heart and brain.
Eyes meet mine,—and Heaven opens.
   You are at my side again.