Death will come and it will have your eyes
From morning to morning, sleepless,
_                                                                  _ an old remorse.
Your eyes will be vain words, a silence
You’ll see as you lean out to the mirror
Each day,
_                  _the one look that it has for everyone.

It will be like ooze from the sea,
Like stopping a vice
_                        _ and the sin. It will be like stopping the sin.
It will be the dead face in the mirror
Listening to shut lips.
It will descend silently,
_                                          _speechlessly into whirlpools.

Death will come and it will have your eyes,
Ridiculous vice
_                          _ and the same look.
You are the great weariness.
You are scorched and burned back by the sea.
You say nothing,
_                              _and nobody speaks to you.

This is a balance sheet and the names don’t matter.
One nail on top of another,
_                                                _ four nails make a cross.
Nothing can add to the past—
Woman is as woman does,
_                                               _and night is always the night.
With its black heart and its black hands it lays me down.