Thirteen and a half

Have you looked across the Sound?
On the other shore life lies.

Can you see it over there?
The palaces, the esplanade?

It only takes a little while to cross,
A year or two at most, sometimes just days.

In clear weather you’ll see boats leaving the marina,
The scarlet awnings of the shops

And fortune-tellers on the steps;
At night there are restaurant lights

And houses glimmering on nameless slopes.
Over there are parties you’ll attend,

The masques and tattered carnivals
And all the long white hours of getting wise.

You’ll talk about returning here –
You’ll say it’s where your heart is –

But, knowing the tides, we won’t expect you.
Sometimes an echo booms across

The Sound, or a mysterious smooth wave,
And often in the darkness we hear cries.

Its laws are unfamiliar, that town,
Yet the people there (reputed to be kind

Although weighed-down with time)
Resemble us in countless ways.