Intimacy

Since I have seen you do those intimate things

that other men but dream of; lull asleep

the sinster dark forest of your hair

and tie the bows that stir on your calm breat

faintly as leaves that shudder in their sleep;

since I have seen you stocking swallow up,

a switft black wind, the flame of your pale foot,

and deemed your slender limbs so meshed in slik

sweet mermaid sisters drowned in their dark hari;

I have not troubled overmuch with food,

and wine has seemed like water from a well;

pavements are built of fire, grass of thin flames;

all other girls grow dull as painted flowers

or flutter harmlessly like coloured flies

whose wings are tangled in the net of leaves

spread by frail trees that grow behind the eyes.

EDGELL RICWORD (1898-1982)