Reincarnation
By GERALD CHAN SIEG
Throughout the ages I have known
Your lovely laughter and your tears,
Your fingers locking with my own.
I saved you from a dinosaur,
Then lost you till the spinning years
Returned you in the Trojan War.
Together we endured the whips
Of pagan Rome and, singing, died;
Together watched the Tartar ships
Unloading silk from dim Cathay
Which softly robed you as my bride.
(A thousand years are but a day.)
I found you next in Aragon,
A maiden hid in costly lace;
And later—ah, sweet Puritan
In your prim bonnet, sober dress,
Who went with courage in your face
To dare with me a wilderness!
Your mind cannot recall the past.
You would be frightened if you knew
What powers, dark, eternal, vast,
I have controlled throughout the years
to keep the essence that is you:
Your lovely laughter and your tears!
