The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter While my hair was still cut straight across my forehead I played about the front gate, pulling flowers You came by on bamboo stilts, playing horse, You walked about my courtyard, pulling a red bird With your blackened hands.

You would ride on my back And I would play at being a boy When you went away, you would vanish into the air And I would watch you as you went Down the road.

After a long time has passed, When we are no longer boy and girl And I think nothing of the years between us And I see you ride again on a horse, my face Will be pale and my hair will hang down my back But my heart will still be at play. This day when you left me, The leaves were falling.

• Ezra Pound