Who Cares?

What ever happens when a love goes wrong

When a love goes wrong some morning,

Goes wrong like the singer of a blackbird song

That a blackbird's not been born in?

Lost like the flutter of a butterfly's flight

In the wild south wind's clash-clatter,

Or a heartbeat stopped as an oak tree's lopped;

Who cares?

Why? What does it matter?

 

What ever happens to a love-lost love

To a love-lost love, come Autumn,

Or a bare beech, birch, or a grey stone church

Or the leaves that the birch tree brought them;

To walk in the shelter of a shaded lane

With the last of the lost love's chatter,

Like the half of a whole, or a lonely soul,

Who cares?

Why? What does it matter?

 

What ever happens to the other one - you

To the other you, half a love lonely,

Do you care, do you weep, do you rest, do you sleep

When you love alone, loving me only?

Will you heave some sigh in your memory's eye

For the scenes of our springtime laughter,

Or burn some flame to erase my name...

Who cares?

Why? What does it matter?

 

David Lewis Paget