Intimacy

SINCE I have seen you do those intimate things

That other men but dream of; lull asleep

The sinister dark forest of your hair

And tie the bows that stir on your calm breast

Faintly as leaves that shudder in their sleep;

Since I have seen your stocking swallow up,

A swift black wind, the flame of your pale foot,

And deemed your slender limbs so meshed in silk

Sweet mermaid sisters drowned in their dark hair

I have not troubled very much with food

And wine has seemed like water from a well;

Pavements are built of fire, grass of thin flames;

All other girls grow dull as painted flowers,

Or flutter harmlessly like coloured flies

Whose wings are tangled in the net of leaves

Spread by frail trees that grow behind the eyes.

Edgell Rickword