She

 
(For the lorn and the reft)
 
She rides with the rapture
I reel with the storm
her darkness forestalling
my own burst of dawn

morning beckoning
the red robins call
my heart’s all a-flutter
as the feathers, they fall

afternoon shadows
evenings of light
my sun is slow setting
let there be night
 
*
 
Gardens a-growing
fountains at play
fled from the frolic
I must hasten away

tomorrow is tempered
the games are undone
too late for this dreamer
decline is begun

dark noons are gathered
the skies are ablaze
yesterday dismounting
I falter from grace
 
*
 
In the far yonder
pale moons are anon
my sky is gone awry
the spool has unspun

she flies with the falcon
I wilt with the rose
red pennants are flying
as the blood river flows

so the blood river flows
yet am I unstirred
her ways may be winsome
but my songs are unheard
 
*
 
Swept by the tempests
borne by the trees
I cleave to her conquests
she clings to the breeze

days of dull glory
evenings macabre
noons with no solace
nights of dead stars

though scorched by the cinders
I stoke her red fires
but dark love hinders
and passion retires
 
*
 

I ravage her darkness
she’ll ravish my light
the living repining
to the phantoms’ delight

incense is bending
but the boughs are unbent
my life is but ending
and hers is unspent

my gods are come glancing
the bowers below
her demons advancing
are felled by a blow

fetch me a wood sprite
these forests among
for the glens are a-glooming
my springs are unsprung
 
*
 
Anthems appealing
I sing to her vales
she, blissful, unhearing
and nothing avails

she stalks by the rushes
the willows among
in afternoon hushes
my songs go unsung
 
*
 
Night birds are calling
my fears from afield
darkness appalling
my fate is now sealed

footsteps echoing
the hallways are dim
dark clouds a-blowing
the aspect is grim

she laughs at my fading
lips in full bloom
longing, evading,
my raptures of gloom

come not in a teasing
rapier unhung
so winsome, appeasing
yet mortally sprung
 

*
 

No ambient sorrows
no luminous joys
no cares for the morrow
no tedious ploys

my love is a pardon
for the sins of my life
an enchanted garden
where serpents are rife

no care for the morrow
all’s put paid from the start
still burgeoning sorrows
load the unyielding heart

my love is a dreaming
of a world held at bay
no hunters, no hunted
no stalker, no prey

in the fit of my fever
I pine for love past
the passions that (op)press me
love’s languors that last
 
*
 
For death is my consort
the love of my dreams
my reason for living
the rhyme in these streams

yes , death is my mistress
ever leading me on
in diurnal distress
as I still sojourn on

would fain lose my heart
than kingdoms regain
endure it unflinching
and still wish it again

for a moment’s true rapture
for one taste of true bliss
I’d welcome The Serpent
and give heaven a miss

for a moment’s true rapture
for just one taste of bliss
would raffle my fortunes
O what madness is this?

from here to hereafter
in a Sahara of pain
where wan wraiths wild wander
there will I remain

from here to hereafter
in a Sahara of pain
what immortal communion
can such fervor sustain?

*
yes, death is my consort
my lover from yore
the song of my senses
my fatal allure

for she is my mistress
my lover serene
i faint by her footfall
she clasps me unseen

darkness abounding
night gilds in vain
silence surrounding
the songbirds are slain

the songbirds are slain
green mansions among
i weep by the wayside
my last lay is sung

she melts with the mist
and black passions are fled
but chained to her chariot
my blood wine blows red

chained to black chariots
i drag at her wheels
passions unspoken
she breaks all my seals

the blood wine flows red
i’m slowly undone
she slays like a siren
i sink with the sun

i sink with the sun
the old gods have failed
not by rapier undone
but by true love assailed

 
[© R.Kanth 2022]

Professor Rajani Kanth, is Author of Coda (Novel) , A Day in the Life (Novel), and Expiations (Verse)