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!