Upon The Quality Of Love
Romeo Romeo - where for art thou Romeo?
Speak that I should hear your voice, rejoice
that deafened ear should hear you call my name…
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The quality of love is not defined,
yet trippeth from the tongue with gentle ease,
to each and every one of us a meaning
as fickle as the feather on a breeze
Speak not to me, I pray, of star crossed lovers,
so thwarted by the cruelty of fate,
love by trial and tedium untested,
denied the chance to flourish or to sate
As flowers cleave to sun, so do we clamour,
enamoured by the promise of romance,
blinded by the light to onward stumble,
and in our madness give no backward glance
To lowly soil beneath us oft forgotten,
that nourished once our hearts right to the core,
grounded us to earth its daily tending,
to universal chaos, lent its law
Uprooted we erode to senseless matter,
desiccated atoms doomed to dust,
planets out of orbit, cased in darkness,
stripped naked of that sacred mantle, trust
For much that speaks of love is surely lust,
lost in a reverie of youth misplaced,
masquerading whore in virgin clothing,
exacting costly penance once embraced
Show me a love that stands the test of time,
beholds its prize through eyes bewitched, beguiled
before a faded bloom, beyond its prime,
to see the sweetest rose or flower wild
Show me a love that does not ask for all,
nor seeks the easy path in life to tread,
sees every facet of a fractured soul
yet loves enough to be by blindness led
Show me a love that does not seek to change
To chip, to hew to mould; instead to hold
Such imperfection to the brightest light
Delight, as though the dullest lead were gold…
Show me a love where two minds meet as one
Sweet appetite by word and language fed
A heat to melt a frozen land locked tear
Swell hearts with hope upon a hemlocked bed
Then I should say that Romeo lives, breathes
that Juliet sleeps,
perchance
one day,
to dream…
Anthony Emmerson
Wed 24th Mar 2010 23:03
About time too . . .
Regards,
A.E. x