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A Valediction: Forbidding Trading - by Selenia

Virtuous men trade mildly all day,
  And whisper to their mules to go,
While some of their friends do stay
   Then breathe the warning: "No!"

And so we trade, and make no noise,
   No tear-floods, nor sighs over lost moves;
Then bandits and lions steal our joys
   Making a mockery of our love.

Moving o'er the earth brings harms and fears,
   Men mourn those that dared, and went;
But trepidation and glowing spheres,
   Won't save Us, the innocent.

Slavery, never dull, is our true love
   (Though we have no sense) cannot admit
Our pain when our wagons removed
   And contempt, those things that stole it.

But we, by a love so much refined
   That our selves know not what it is,
Others assured of the absence of our minds,
   But when we vanish we will be missed.

Our souls fear, which will be the one,
   To drag us from life, and yet
We trade, until the lowering of the sun
   And try our best, our neighbor to beat.

Some alone, they brave the harms,
   Nine, or four, or sometimes just two;
Until they lay dead, losing warmth,
   And go the way all others do.

And inside and alone I sit by the hearth,
   Sparing myself from those that roam,
Though my love calls to my heart,
   Here I stay, safe in my home.

My heart goes out, to those that must
   Grasp a wagon and across country run;
Thy shrieks of death make me feel just,
   And I shudder; it has only begun...

The above poem is based on John Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", the original of which is available at http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/mourning.htm

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