Well, how has it been with you since we met <br />That last strange time of a hundred times? <br />When we met to swear that we could forget— <br />I your caresses, and you my rhymes— <br />The rhyme of my lays that rang like a bell, <br />And the rhyme of my heart with yours, as well? <br />How has it been since we drank that last kiss, <br />That was bitter with lees of the wasted wine, <br />When the tattered remains of a threadbare bliss, <br />And the worn-out shreds of a joy divine, <br />With a year's best dreams and hopes, were cast <br />Into the rag-bag of the Past? <br />Since Time, the rag-buyer, hurried away, <br /> <br />With a chuckle of glee at a bargain made, <br />Did you discover, like me, one day, <br />That, hid in the folds of those garments frayed, <br />Were priceless jewels and diadems— <br />The soul's best treasures, the heart's best gems? <br />Have you, too, found that you could not supply <br />The place of those jewels so rare and chaste? <br />Do all that you borrow or beg or buy <br />Prove to be nothing but skilful paste? <br />Have you found pleasure, as I found art, <br />Not all-sufficient to fill your heart? <br />Do you sometimes sigh for the tattered shreds <br />Of the old delight that we cast away, <br />And find no worth in the silken threads <br />Of newer fabrics we wear to-day? <br />Have you thought the bitter of that last kiss <br />Better than sweets of a later bliss? <br />What idle queries!—or yes or no— <br />Whatever your answer, I understand <br />That there is no pathway by which we can go <br />Back to the dead past's wonderland; <br />And the gems he purchased from me, from you, <br />There is no rebuying from Time, the Jew<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/queries-2/
