Paradox

Berenice Van Slyke

Death like a shadow fastens on my feet,
Moving in rhythm with me down the street.
Dawn to high noon and twilight find him still
Rooted in me as granite in a hill.
Even at midnight, when the sky is black,
His undefeated step takes up my track
He makes no sound, and sometimes I forget,
Laughing with life, that I am so beset.
With the last fusion of my blood and bones
Our double shade will fret no more the stones;
But to that change I happily submit—
For life is flesh, but death the soul of it.