Where You Have Strayed
And if the stars fall from the sky
Will that prove it’s not a lie
Nor rising moon, nor midnight swoon
Nor tidal surge, nor crushing urge
Nor prophecy from the sage
Nor jealousy, nor fits of rage
Nor your body’s heat, nor rain, nor sleet
How can I show, I do entreat
Delight my days, with you to gaze
Alas, digress, I should concur
Fate may steal cold hearts to stir
And tempt those stars there from the sky
In midnight swoon or midday sun
In late July — I shan’t say when
Tis now! Tis now — ‘tis not too late
Is freedom born of freedom’s sake
Or chanced do lonely hearts rare make
And times confound such moments
Set ablaze, do the wise control it
Or fail, ignoble, nor brave, enslaved
Not like gods, nor kings, but jealous spouses
Not angels sent at time’s arousal
Not born of privilege nor espoused
But bound in turmoil, bound in its fate
Like some wild brute on nature’s plains
Or a child perplexed in mystery’s chains
No, the stars that fall aren’t earthbound
Enticed by love’s surreal surrounds
It is I that fall — the poets now betrayed
On jilted ground, where you have strayed
