By Zelda Gilbert

Nothing is extinguished in the human personality but, on the contrary, everything is set ablaze.
—Valentin Tomberg

You threaten, with your blazing Self,
The sweet decay of solitude,
In which affection would be coarse
And sacraments seem almost lewd;

For stillness grown from emptiness
Shrinks back, as mushrooms do from fire,
At contact with another Self.
I cannot build my phoenix-pyre,

But, if you pile the lichened cord
And bear the burden of my fear,
A fire sparked from your flame-Self
Will be my birthbed and my bier.

Zelda Gilbert is a senior studying History.