If I Should Learn In Some Quite Casual Way

If I should learn, in some quite casual way,     That you were gone, not to return again—  Read from the back-page of a paper, say,     Held by a neighbor in a subway train,  How at the corner of this avenue           And such a street (so are the papers filled)  A hurrying man—who happened to be you—     At noon to-day had happened to be killed,  I should not cry aloud—I could not cry     Aloud, or wring my hands in such a place—        I should but watch the station lights rush by     With a more careful interest on my face,  Or raise my eyes and read with greater care  Where to store furs and how to treat the hair.