Before love, that jolting lilt

Before love, that jolting lilt

East of roses, in perturbed darkness,

Missing the eternal circumstance,

Yearning still, again, for that exploratory tilt …

Vainly would I fly into your heart

Afire, burning, consumed, expended.

Love is not an ending; nor does it end

Easily: becomes pith, becomes seed, starts

Needing, kneading, mid-desperation,

The long climb out of loneliness, turning

In hope, in anguish, in foolish expectation.

No two are joined except in painful learning:

Each frightened lesion closed for restoration.