Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE GOLD PIECE, by JANET B. MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE GOLD PIECE, by                    
First Line: My lord will not miss of all his store
Last Line: Because I have stolen from my lord the ransom he would not give.
Subject(s): Death - Children; Gold; Heaven; Death - Babies; Paradise


MY lord will not miss of all his store
This one ten-yen piece of gold—or me.
It must be held tight between my teeth—
This gold. The Gods will not be cheated.
Therefore quietly must I go to sleep, and very gently.
Not for me that which tired women love,
The water's soft embrace; for weakly might I gasp,
And gasping, the gold be gone,
And theft and death be vain.
For me must be the dagger thrust—
Sharp and swift as scorpion sting—to life's source.
Thus, conscious to the end, can I remember
Ever tighter, tighter, tighter,
To clench that which will ransom
From Buddhist hells, which holy pictures show,
My little hunch-back son—
Condemned becaused he cursed his father
When my lord spoke of the deformed boy bitterly, and with disgust,
Not knowing that the child would understand.
But he was old enough to catch his father's meaning
And to curse.
Soon after this he died;
On earth as in heaven is there no room
For one who, breaking the law of the Gods,
Will dare to curse his father.
Now I am free to follow; for the doctors say
I can never bear my lord another child—
I am not cast down as are other women
Upon whom this verdict falls; I laugh and am glad,
Because now I may follow to hell
The only child I ever bore, my little hunch-back boy.
For a moment I shall look upon his face,
A look that must last me through eternity,
Then he, flying upward, will go to heaven.
I have between my teeth the price of his ransom.
Goddess of Mercy give me strength
Not to wish to cast it out,
That in hell I might have him ever near me—
The son whom I cannot follow to heaven,
Because I have stolen from my lord the ransom he would not give.





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