Nine Days

Joseph
Where are you, Father, where?
Caught in the jealous trap
Of an empty house I hear
As I sit alone in the dark
Everything, everything,
The drip of the bathroom tap,
The creak of the sofa spring,
The wind in the air-shaft, all
Making the same remark
Stupidly, stupidly,
Over and over again.
Father, what have I done?
Answer me, Father, how
can I answer the tactless wall
Or the pompous furniture now?
Answer them . . .

Gabriel
No, you must.

Joseph
How then am I to know,
Father, that you are just?
Give me one reason.

Gabriel
No.

Joseph
All I ask is one
Important and elegant proof
That what my Love had done
Was really at your will
And that your will is Love.


Gabriel
No, you must believe;
Be silent, and sit still.

--W. H. Auden, from "The Temptation of St. Joseph"