After Ezra Pound and Giacomo Leopardi

 

And so you were

everything to me, that is now less than dust –

                        lost, captive of the soil

That surrounds and nourishes my soul.

 

And so now I –

still stranded, umbral shade of past desire – 

                        left, am guardian of sad recall

watching branch and bloom hide memory’s shrine.

Thus that soft lip which nourished

with loving touch and kindly word;

The loving gaze that held us all,

the hand which gently pressed;

So, the hair, the neck, the breast –

All these have been, and are now but ash

And phantoms lodged within my mind.

 

So Fate has left us

cleft through life’s cruel span –

                        but, strong within mind’s compass, she

is held forever – heft higher than mason’s stone could place.