An anxious shadow crawls in, room by room,
I clench my teeth: how to hide you from this gloom?
You do not tremble - calm, with eyes ahead.
You lay your little palm upon my knee,
And watch the guilt begin to shake in me.
You rock my grown-up terror back to bed.
In you I recognise a soul of old,
Beside whom silence is what I must hold.
And quiet sorrow lurks in thought, unsaid.
You pardon all - lost faith and helplessness,
The night's impenetrable madness,
When the roof came crashing down overhead.
Though every childish flight is yours by right -
To press your little face where shoulders hold tight,
Yet for my sake you overcome your dread.