Short Shrift

'I’ve failed!’ How many times have sons

And fathers’ fathers echoed me?

‘I’ve failed! My life was spent in dreams,’

We said, ‘in shallow misery.

In dreams and steel and soot and grime,

In screams, and what would seem some crime

Of trying to live beyond our need...

Our lives were spent in some black creed!’

 

‘Too short, too short, the days we spent

In trying to right the days before,

Too long, too long, the years we struggled

Knowing not what struggled for.

What goal, what aim, what discontent,

What loves we lost, what life we spent

In wondering what such life could be?

Short shrift for you - harsh words for me!’

 

‘I’ve failed, my sons, I’ve failed you all

And so my failure tortures me,

As in that innocence divine

Your love loves all the failed in me.

If I could strip this flesh, or tear

These eyes that cried hot fire for you

To save you from the same despair

My father’s father brought me to...’

 

David Lewis Paget