Ahead and Around
by Laura Riding Jackson (1901-1991)
Ahead and AroundMet, quarreled, quilled the bird of peace,Untidied a pleasant plane.Ahead accused Around of complete deceit,Around accused Ahead of being discontented.Neither listened to each.Either lined on,Making round straight and straight round,Permitting nothing in-between,Licked space clean,Fattened unhappily and flewAlong the geometrical faith of two-and-two,Hated apart; and far and farEach wandererHoped toward a spiritually reconnoitered heaven.
“For,” cried sinuous Around,“More and less than I, am I,Nature of all things, all things the nature of me.”Ahead echoed the cry.Sped toward its own eternityOf the sweet end before the bitter beyond, beyond.And both were brave and both were strong,And the ways of both were like and long,And adventured freely in fettered song:One that circled as it sang,One that longitudinally rang.
The spite prospered. The spite stopped.Both earned the same end differently,Prided along two different paths,Reached the same humilityOf an old-trodden start.Birth is the beginning where all part.Death is the beginning where they meet.
