Leaving the Body

Between and out of memory we lapse
Like petals in a weather-battered creek
We stand upon the brink of our collapse
And yet, all things about me seem unique...

The waves, how soft and slowly they collide
But brisk upon the rocks they roll and die
The nipping frost compels those thoughts that hide
Could premonition dictate you and I?

Look deeply at the ever-waning sun
For beauty such as that is found in you
A pale and fleeting glimpse, beloved one
A glimpse of growing old, like growing new

I see within your cheeks the joys of mirth
Of innocence untouched by thread and pin
The greatest form of purity on earth
Lies dampened in your soft, complected skin

I see within your arms a brightened path
A goal towards which all sane men would strive
To sleep, perchance to see the aftermath
Where fall those loves that seldom could survive

I see within your lips a warm release
A welcome and inviting touch of heaven
To tear beneath my standing, piece by piece
Evoking, not to cause to fall, but leaven

I see beneath your smile a torment dark
A worry of an everlasting wake
My wishes are to snuff the learned spark
Eternity, thou villain, I forsake

And yet, amidst your eyes exists a rest
Fatigue with which this bliss can mingle gaily
The one that I would true consider blessed
Is he who'd know their warm romances daily

I know that envy be the poorer sin
But pride invites my heart the glutton be
You quell for me the wrath that nests within
My greed is dead, I own all things I see


But lust! Fair damsel, lust is such a myth
Proposterous is who'd condemn my will!
Your scabbard forged befriends the very smith
By whose attempts my scimitar did till!

And sloth! For cent'ries thousands would I doze
If dreams were promised all to be of you
That worlds devoid of consequence and close
Were all the worries ever that we knew

So envy, my beloved, seeming bright
I'll place upon the walkway, where I'd stand
If only for a solitary night
We'd walk into the starset, hand in hand