Nearer Than You

How can a woman tell
When love is gone
From love that merely sleeps
But deep inside
Has still the root
The stem and flower grows on
And so dreams not to die
But sleeps to hide
Perhaps
When the clouds drifting by make more noise
Than amorous whispers you aimlessly breathe
And croakings of paddocks
Speak with greater poise
Than lily pad speeches
With nothing beneath
And so I'll confess what I know to be true
That bullfrogs
Have more eloquence than do you
When days are longer than they used to be
And nights are maddening eternity
With only forced sighs to interrupt
The same repose your lips
Would once corrupt
I'll steal me away
So your soul shall not wake
Though more than my absence
To rouse it would take
Across from the meadow and down to the pond
To sink myself up to the waist
Then beyond
For water knows better in love what to do
And plays with its prey
With more passion than you

In dreaming one may oft' release his grasp
On what to conscious minds is naught but clear
That once the time of questioning is near
Chance there is none
To hide the fatal asp
Who follows me silently onto the shore
Where I learn to cherish my new solitude
And feel with precision
What ere had been rude
Yes, I shall return to thy bed nevermore
Born was I with one heart
I ask not for two
When rushes and lilies press
Nearer than you