Refuge
(for Clem)
I warble not
of
Grecian urns
nor lisp
of
nightingales
but wrap
my
odes
in wraiths
of
rue
afore which
all else
pales
*
But a
ghostly
wand’rer
spread thin
over
hills and dales
laid low
by
every calumny
and over
naught
prevails
*
Upon a tree
waits
tristesse
smiling wanly
down
vineyards
spread before
me wide
O far far
from town
*
Boudoir
of the mottled
grape
lone sanctum
of the
lorn
‘tis where
love
oft repairs
but not
where
she is born
*
Each day
a ravished
refugee
seeks
the
haven fey
succors the
stricken
sinking heart
in moors
of dank
dismay
*
She’s the
highest
mortal pass
the spirit
can
assay
splint’ring like
shattered
glass
when her
changelings
betray
*
So on a tree
sighs
tristesse
as I
lean to
lay me down
to dream of
love
in fevered sleep
O far
far
from town
[© R.Kanth 2023]
Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (A Novel), A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse), and Farewell to Modernism (Political Economy Tract).
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