Beside the rivers of the midnight town <br />Where four-foot couples love and paupers drown, <br />Shots of quick hell we took, our final kiss, <br />The great and swinging bridge a bower for this. <br /> <br /> <br />Your cheek lay burning in my fingers’ cup; <br />Often my lip moved downward and yours up <br />Till both adjusted, tightened, locksmith-true: <br />The flesh precise, the crazy brain askew. <br /> <br /> <br />Roughly the train with grim and piston knee <br />Pounded apart our pleasure, you from me; <br />Flare warned and ticket whispered and bell cried. <br />Time and the locks of bitter rail divide. <br /> <br /> <br />For ease remember, all that parted lie: <br />Men who in camp of shot or doldrum die, <br />Who at land’s-end eternal furlough take <br /> <br /> <br />—This for memento as alone you wake.<br /><br />John Frederick Nims<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/madrigal-in-time-of-war/
