NOW
(anonymous)
Out of your whole life give but a moment!
All of your life that has gone before.
All to come after it- so you ignore,
So you make perfect the present- condense,
In a rapture of rage, for perfection’s endowment,
Thought and feeling and soul and sense-
Merged into a moment which gives me at last
You around me for once, you beneath me, above me-
Me- sure that despite of time future, time past-
This tick of our lifetime’s one moment you love me!
How long such suspension may linger? Oh,
Sweet-
The moment eternal- just that and no more-
When ecstasy’s utmost we clutch at the core
While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut, and lips meet!