"A poet's job is to warn." |
I sit there, here, waiting for hours With rustling blood-gold of leaf showers; Underneath swirling sky-high cools Day dreamt around murky pools. Feeding from memory, my many late meals: Her harrowing eyes, with fire of burning fields. Taking me deep as all glad weights Better to sink by soul and not fate. Buds of color huddle each of them coupled Though evenly tied (and her thoughts are troubled.) Why melt and strong at her bare, sweet mouth That whispers with the softness of England’s moth. And I still lie here, wait pressed to her bosom Letting her guide toward the blushed late blossom. Two people in youth where one is above The other all purple and both tempting love. Sun-play dabbles dance, kissing her face While she kisses my hands in that rare place. “You’ve always each other,” the single day sang. The perfumed air urged, “Breathe much as you can.” But my memory’s wakened by gentle-sad tugs Of two more who tried, though not unlike us. They seemed not to notice in all their room They were yet untinged by silvery gloom Of winter’s upcoming; welcomed by some But a season of pain for those who won’t warm. It was themselves they iced with splinters of doubt (Needlessly, yes) ‘til every swollen shout Convinced them, misled, of better untried. So on that precious lost day, They lay down and they died. |