Love's Knot

The knot that tightened my gut, at least

Is gone: but ‘for the pain my soul claims,

How can I bear it? That love & nature’s priest,

How can I wear her garland, that thornless rose?

It is debased, is fallen, and a paltry thing.

And though my spirit, weakened thirsts for you,

Quench it cannot for fear I’d fail to win.

Dear, I know not how or why or what this is,

But I am torn, enwrapped, and thorned in.

For love of you and hope of flight as

The bird does float on the East Wind – and wish.

I wanted you so badly

To be

Mine and not another’s or claimed your own –

Apart from me, an unknown variable.

But life purges us of romantic dreams –

Alas! I draw far from you, and stable

In my own solicitude, stop caring.