Beyond all this, the wish to be alone: <br />However the sky grows dark with invitation-cards <br />However we follow the printed directions of sex <br />However the family is photographed under the flag-staff - <br />Beyond all this, the wish to be alone. <br /> <br />Beneath it all, the desire for oblivion runs: <br />Despite the artful tensions of the calendar, <br />The life insurance, the tabled fertility rites, <br />The costly aversion of the eyes away from death - <br />Beneath it all, the desire for oblivion runs.<br /><br />Philip Larkin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/wants/
