this deep and wicked loves

(inspired by phrased found in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot.  These phrases will be in italics in the new poem)

we fell into this love

deep and wicked

piled high with sharp-sided facets

we chose not to feel.

 

let us go, you and I

to those places we long to be

and hide our intentions

when we meet the faces that you meet,

for shame of wagging tongues and fingers.

 

do I dare disturb the universe,

with my wicked love

for your beautiful face?

and how should I presume

that your youth and beauty

could ever make space for

my dusty ways, when it malingers.

 

you gaze upon me,

awe-filled,

but I am no prophet;

yet I see all kinds of trouble

if some talk of you and me

lands in the wrong ears.

 

if we lose everything…

your beauty…

would it have been worthwhile

to live this love at such a cost?

 

in these days without you,

I grow old

in these dark days,

I have heard the Mermaids singing

but I don’t think they sing for me;”

they see your face and fall in love with you –

like I have.

 

For me,

I will close my eyes

to dream of our lives together –

till human voices wake us.

 

(c) r.l.elke