I’ m wondering where you are now
Married, or mad, or free:
Wherever you are you’ re likely glad,
But memory troubles me.
We could’ ve had us children,
We could’ ve had a home —
But you thought not, and I thought not,
And these nine years we roam.
Today I worked in the deep dark tanks,
And climbed out to watch the sea:
Gulls and salty waves pass by,
And mountains of Araby.
I’ ve travelled the lonely oceans
And wandered the lonely towns.
I’ ve learned a lot and lost a lot,
And proved the world was round.
Now if we’ d stayed together,
There’ s much we’ d never’ ve known —
But dreary books and weary lands
Weigh on me like a stone.
Indian Ocean, 1959