1. Have you resolved to leave or decided that you are departing,
While habit diverts you from kindly asking and returning?

2. Across a blind wilderness none can cross
Save one led by a discerning and gentle heart,

3. A barren land where I have lain though not asleep,
My outflung arm become a pillow for my cheek.

4. I learned it was no place for softness or repose
Like a bargain made with a single clap that seals the pact.

5. So I fell among the lairs of emaciated camels
Whose milch-she camels nourished their young at dusk,

6. You see the marks of teats like the nails
Of tent-pegs driven in when camps depart.

7. It was as though, when darkness came, the site
Was the smouldering ashes a fire had left behind.