Once upon a time, you named me
your ‘nightingale of the wild’
in cool springtime I loved thee
in sweet sharing undefiled,
sighing joyously in the twilight,
nested in the warmth of your smile
gently, sensually rippling delight,
loving you without guile
Drifting through summer on passion’s wing
fearing not should we fail, but
to pluck tenderly the heart string
to drown slowly, to inhale
one another and be made all the more
sweetly crazed by an eternity we
could only vaguely comprehend, for
the night was never so blissfully free
Autumn’s gaze is ever-sharpening, and
you have long since flown away,
beyond the horizon of wonderland,
where I am abandoned as passe’
You left me here, wings shattered
by a spell of promises sweet
when you lay palsied, sanguine, scattered
in the stillness of my keep
Winter’s cruel and icy finger
sends questions through my mind
Unsightly? Unworthy? Still I linger
Could I be so supremely blind?
Chill winds moan within my fortress,
no peace, no respite I find –
night condemns me – loveless, trapped
by memory’s cloying vine
Damn you that you left me
damn me that I stay, to
nurse the wounds of what-may-be
to ruefully dream away
so many of my tomorrows,
all your impassioned lies
all the secret sorrows now falling
from these, my weary eyes