To a Door

Hazel Hall (1886–1924)

Above: detail from painting, September 20, 2015

To a Door

Door, you stand in your darkened frame
Mindful of your wooden might,
Flaunting relentlessly your claim
As guardian of sound and light.

Yet for all your vigil, Door
Shadows that slip on panting feet
Over your threshold tinge the floor
With what was sunlight on the street.

And sounds fluttering in to die
(Door, you thought I should not know!)
Were started by an echo’s cry
That was a voice not long ago.

from Curtains by Hazel Hall (1921), read for Vol. 122 of the Short Poetry Collection.