Words of Love

 

So free from me tonight I know you wonder

     who it is to whom I whisper

          the tender words of love that made you tremble

    and you could draw

          the figure my eyes adore for you know

          the paths I wander.

Me I do not want to think about

     how what I taught you now belongs

          to no poetic soul

              whose body burns for you as mine did.

It is the nostalgia of the full moon

     that reminded me, not the one

          with whom I share horizons

     and it was not the hard rock,

          it was not the clean cold pasture

     nor the many faces in the city, no

          and it was not the clinking keys

     nor the blaring sounds of dancing melodies.

Oh who will kiss your hair,

     and who will greet the dawn with you?

Did you ask that- did I ask that-

     and in the sloping drives of midnight

          was it thirst that made me seek

               to busily make rhymes as if to turn

               the pages of the night and flip

          the colors of day forward fast forward

     to a moment when my heart will not scream

          and my eyes not squeeze a tear for you.

I know you too so bravely bear the sighs,

     and sobs you give your busily polished table,

          you carry the looks he will never understand,

          you bury the sighs only the wind will know.

And no,

     it was not because I did not love you

          that we said good bye but yes

It was because I loved you that I said good bye,

               to make you free.

Now the anguish gripping my throat

     like a phantom of past promise

          I wish I could portray for you,

               as I did other more loving ghosts

                     with impressionistic kisses 

               in the canopied gallery of night,

          when the arching heavens cradled us.

Tonight, beloved soul, I saw you again

     and hurriedly whispered words of love

          sting more than any good bye,

          for I know now I can not deny

     the depth of my firm devotion 

               to the fragile eternal flame

               we call faithful and true.

Though I live a thousand years

     there is not a moment your love

          will not be with me,

     though there be a thousand kisses hence,

          though my trembling lips kiss

     ivory and gold and the blushing rose,

         a space yet stays in my hours

      for words of love only heaven knows.

 

Vicente Reyes

November 15, 2000