-Lament.

           ".  . . without hope change  
            In sleep she seemed to  walk
                forlorn."
                           -(fro) Tennyson's   (poem)  
                            "Mariana" (1830).
     (for Diana, who inspired the poem
      in  visionary gleam)

And so you came  loaded with  lament
   Of  all the world  aflame in your  eyes,
           so calm and wide,
Grieving perhaps  over 'might-have-
           beens,'  yet with intent--
   Sorrow the kind   that had no home but
          with  restraint in  pride,
A kind that made  you not weak but
         aweary  by  adverse  tide;
  Then sat yourself  before me in  quiet
          unease,  sweet  mournful
 Letting go of all. you truly are,  all you
          could  really  do--
So much lost to  an unfair world  that
          neither  revered the beautiful,
  Nor shielded  its weak  from its
          cruel  cold! a world  that had no
               chance for  you--
An indifferent  world that never knew
          you for real,  for true.

                          -by Hakim Kassim.
                           (d. Dec. 14. 2021)