A sylph is passing my threshold stair, <br />Drifting her fragrance through the vine, <br />Promising dreams of a never-could-be <br />From the loss and the lapse of a former time. <br /> <br />She finds me adrift in a restless sleep <br />Alone at the reins of a phantom hearse, <br />She plants a kiss upon either cheek <br />'A gift, ' she says, 'from the universe.' <br /> <br />I try to wake, but she hushes me <br />And lays my hand on her silken thigh, <br />'Your words have won you a sweet respite <br />From the pains of the death in life, ' she sighs. <br /> <br />'I come to you from the Lords of Life <br />To offer you more than you thought enough.' <br />My lips are restless and seek her breasts <br />As she sips from my silver stirrup cup. <br /> <br />Her eyes are stars that the gods designed, <br />Her hair like straw as it brushes my cheek, <br />Her lips are strawberries, doused in wine <br />That I sip and kiss as she tries to speak. <br /> <br />'Why would you come to an old man's lair <br />To tease and taunt with your faultless skin, <br />An age has passed since I felt desire <br />But you stoke the coals of a cold come-in.' <br /> <br />'You tear my memory at the core <br />Where youth and beauty have always supped, <br />But life is cruel, for age's store <br />Holds only the empty stirrup cups.' <br /> <br />She strokes my cheek, she kisses my brow, <br />She places my hand between her thighs, <br />'The rose that blooms at your fingertips <br />Is the gift of the ages, ' she replies. <br /> <br />I wake at last in an empty room, <br />The bottle is dry, I sit and curse, <br />But then I smile in the gathering gloom <br />For the joy of the rose in a lover's verse.<br /><br />David Lewis Paget<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-lover-s-verse/
