Tell all the Truth but tell it slant -
Success in Circuit lines
Too bright for our infirm delight
The truth's superb surprise
As lightning to the children eased
With explanation kind
The truth must dazzle gradually
or every man be blind.
-emily d.

If you were coming in the fall,
I'd brush the summer by
With half a smile, and half a spurn,
As housewives do, a fly

If I could see you in a year,
I'd wind the months in balls -
And put them each in separate drawers,
For fear the numbers fuse

If only centuries, delayed,
I'd count them on my hand,
Subtracting, till my fingers dropped
Into Van Dieman's Land,

If certain, when this life was out -
that yours and mine, should be
I'd toss it yonder, think a rind,
And take eternity -

But, now, uncertain of the length
of this, that is between,
It goads me, like the Goblin bee -
That will not state - it's sting
-dickinson