IV
29 lines✦
nly until this cigarette is ended,A little moment at the end of all,While on the floor the quiet ashes fall,And in the firelight to a lance extended,Bizarrely with the jazzing music blended,The broken shadow dances on the wall,I will permit my memory to recallThe vision of you, by all my dreams attended.And then adieu,--farewell!--the dream is done.Yours is a face of which I can forgetThe colour and the features, every one,The words not ever, and the smiles not yet;But in your day this moment is the sunUpon a hill, after the sun has set. V Once more into my arid days like dew,Like wind from an oasis, or the soundOf cold sweet water bubbling underground,A treacherous messenger, the thought of youComes to destroy me; once more I renewFirm faith in your abundance, whom I foundLong since to be but just one other moundOf sand, whereon no green thing ever grew.And once again, and wiser in no wise,I chase your coloured phantom on the air,And sob and curse and fall and weep and riseAnd stumble pitifully on to where,Miserable and lost, with stinging eyes,Once more I clasp,--and there is nothing there.
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