And so it ends, <br />We who were lovers may be friends. <br />I have some weeks in which to steel <br />My heart and teach myself to feel <br />Only a sober tenderness <br />Where once was passion's loveliness. <br /> <br />I had not thought that there would come <br />Your touch to make our music dumb, <br />Your meeting touch upon the string <br />That still was vibrant, still could sing <br />When I impatiently might wait <br />Or parted from you at the gate. <br /> <br />You took me weak and unprepared. <br />I had not thought that you who shared <br />My days, my nights, my heart, my life, <br />Would slash me with a naked knife <br />And gently tell me not to bleed <br />But to accept your crazy creed. <br /> <br />You speak of God, but you have cut <br />The one last thread, as you have shut <br />The one last door that open stood <br />To show me still the way to God. <br />If this be God, this pain, this evil, <br />I'd sooner change and try the Devil. <br /> <br />Darling, I thought of nothing mean; <br />I thought of killing straight and clean. <br />You're safe; that's gone, that wild caprice, <br />But tell me once before I cease, <br />Which does your Church esteem the kinder role, <br />To kill the body or destroy the soul?<br /><br />Vita Sackville-West<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/and-so-it-ends/
