song | marie borroff

love is a staying of desire,
desire is flight and staying, dies;
whatever you have heard in song,
this is the truth; the rest is lies.
nor is there touch or kiss to prove
love other than a foredoomed thing,
for though it may conceive love’s fire,
the heart cannot sustain it long.

lips heavy with the freight of love
have hung above me like a bough;
out of a deep and mastering drouth
i reached and drew the dark fruits low.
the pulps lost savor in my mouth
and straight i heard a dead bird sing
“love is a staying of desire,
a slackening fire, an unplumed wing.”

(Source: greatpoets.livejournal.com)