In the Countryside

after Thomas Hardy

Women make their gravest mistakes
in the countryside.

I promise you, fair and gentle,
the day will come

when each of you
shall inherit a green estate.

You will run it masterfully
and it will bloom, but soon

other days will come
and men.

A shepherd, a landowner,
and, lastly, a soldier.

Each will have his qualities,
different, appealing

and you will have
a choice to make.

Who would I be, then,
to advise you?

No one really, and you could
send me away if you wished,

but, on my parting
I would leave you a gift,

a slip of paper in your hand:

“The shepherd, my dear,
the shepherd”

Still, how could I pretend
to know your heart,

to know your best course, when
I have only ever been

a landowner and a soldier?

–January 13, 2016