Friday, 19 January 2024

O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon

 

O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon

 

Oh, I cannot swear that I do not love you

as the sun lies sick in bed, the moon is like

that cowlick, pressed against your forehead rests

a crescent, a question mark, an end stop.

No, more a waymark between throat and breasts

that sun must swell from crescents to discs,

round you gently as her passing phases call

moonshine until you’re breathless in silhouette,

in my darkness slumber and hapless to forget.

Oh, I cannot lie here and say you are not Juliet,

as the sun sends her diadem, in corona flames,

casts mirrors that shimmer with what you will attain,

scatter halos to crown moon’s darkling dove

and her shadows eclipsing such swollen love.

As your fruit must fill to fall on meadows strewn,

so shall the sun give way, with sickness swoon

under my light loving of this inconstant moon.




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