“I cannot live with You”
by Emily Dickinson

I cannot live with You –
It would be Life –
And Life is over there –
Behind the Shelf

The Sexton keeps the Key to –
Putting up
Our Life — His Porcelain –
Like a Cup –

Discarded of the Housewife –
Quaint — or Broke –
A newer Sevres pleases –
Old Ones crack –

I could not die — with You –
For One must wait
To shut the Other’s Gaze down –
You — could not –

And I — Could I stand by
And see You — freeze –
Without my Right of Frost –
Death’s privilege?

Nor could I rise — with You –
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus’ –
That New Grace

Glow plain — and foreign
On my homesick Eye –
Except that You than He
Shone closer by –

They’d judge Us — How –
For You — served Heaven — You know,
Or sought to –
I could not –

Because You saturated Sight –
And I had no more Eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise

And were You lost, I would be –
Though My Name
Rang loudest
On the Heavenly fame –

And were You — saved –
And I — condemned to be
Where You were not –
That self — were Hell to Me –

So We must meet apart –
You there — I — here –
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are — and Prayer –
And that White Sustenance –
Despair –

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