DRIVE-BY REPLY TO DONNE

c 2008 Tristan Winter

Allowed but silence,

            Hell-struck still;

Yet honey-lathered luscious skill,

            Blasts me, Lucifer! ‘gainst this grill.

            Has she parted?

                          Ever near?

            Ever sleeping?

                        True, sure, dear?

Silent walks her ‘only one’

            The ‘only one’ but jack of jests;

-Dear, silent partings

            Break me best.

*

Hell then, here, so far from you,

Your life, your suns, your gusts come true.

Wait! I beg you, just one view:

That life were lived; that I loved you.

*

Gone now! Haste! Blest one I wish.

            I’ll stay the night –a lone dreamed kiss.

And ever your breast in my hand

            I’ll love your dreams, in your dear land.

Silence, poet, spinning fool!

            Hell remains my passage cruel.

And torrent-running nameless hope

            Writhes dangling, meat, from gibbet rope.

Come night: forgive, for blest you be

            And, Love, release me from this plea:

That love might always find you here,

            In he his whose Heart they all might fear.

                         Allowed a silent,

                                      Howling love,

                         I turn away and

                                      Fly above.

I touch my finger to your lip,

            (I pray that I shan’t lick your slip)

O silence! Sorrow! Be my strength!

            O years beyond us last the length!

And fool though I’ve been surely played,

            Her skirt I ache to rend, dismayed.

Gnaw to her heart my honest fate

            Night drops again and I’ve been staid.

Parting, then, such sucking sorrow;

            Never parting –past tomorrow.

Love I trusted never ever,

            Your heart only said forever.