Twilight

Twilight, with its soft light, Its faint quiet shadows, Falling on the hillsides, The mountains, the meadows, Brings to me such deep thoughts, Such philosophic notions, That I sometimes imagine At daylight's cessation What I would see If I saw with God’s eye. See all the atoms And see all the stars, See all the peasants And see all the Tsars. See all the peoples Who live on the Earth. See their life as remembered From their moment of birth; All the small memories That make up their past: Their teacher at her desk In ninth-grade French class; The sun on the leaves That they saw as a child; The wind in the trees; That day a son smiled. Memories no one but they Can ever experience, As we’re locked inside skulls And mostly oblivious To the vast inner lives Of each one around us. So as day draws to night And the sunlight fades, As I drift through my daydream And wander through glades, I imagine my life Multiplied by the billions If I could see even dimly By a god’s holy vision, And then by more billions By all those who’ve died; The immense web of memories That surround us but reside Always and forever Just out of reach.