My Love never languished.
She was a visual feast, another Helen,
and we loved with an incandescent love
so that even the gods wept and wished to be mortal.
Like children we shared our joys and sorrows,
minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, and day-by-day,
for I loved her always.
And I laughed and wept in her arms,
and I saw my face in her eyes
whenever she looked into mine.
And we whispered, and we listened,
and we tasted, and we touched
as young lovers in spring's fragrant garden.
Throughout sultry summer nights,
on cool autumn days beneath saffron maples,
and more so on bitter winter mornings,
she loved me.
And hours turned to days, and days months, and months years
as all the while curly headed children sprang forth.
And just as quickly, up they grew and moved away.
But even so, she laughed when I kissed her,
and I loved her all the more as we grew older
so that even the gods wept and wished they were mortal.
And then one day she died, and so did I,
for she was more than love, my life,
and I could not bear to lose her.
And the world whirled on
as the gods watched and wept
and wished they had made us immortal.
* Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's 'Annabel Lee'; out of the deepest admiration for Poe I wrote this poem.
William Jackson
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/and-the-world-whirled-on/
