Fool o' the Moon

The silver-slippered moon treads the blue tiles of the sky,And ISee her dressed in golden roses,With a single breast uncovered,The carnation tip of itUrgent for a lover's lip.So she dances to a statelyBeat, with poses most sedatelyTaken, yet there liesSomething wanton in her gestures,And there is surprise of coquetryIn the falling of her vestures.Why?

Out of old mythology,With a pulse of gourds and sheep-skins,Banging bronze and metal thunders,There is she,Wonderfullest of earth's wonders.As for me,Head thrown back and arms spread wideLike a zany crucified,I stand watching, waiting, gazing,All of me spent in amazing,Longing for her wheat-white thighs,Thirsting for her emerald fire,My desirePounding dully from my eyes.And my handsClutch and cuddle the vast airSeeking her where she's most fair.

There,On the cool blue tiles of heaven,She is dancing coolly, coldly,Footsteps trace a braid of seven,And her gauzy garments fleetRound her like a glittering sleet.Suddenly she flings them boldlyIn a streaming bannerallOut behind,And I see all.God! I'm blind!

And a goodly companyOf men are we,Lovers she has chosen,Laughing-stocks and finger-postsTo the wise, a troupe of ghostsSwelled by every century.Mad, and blind, and burnt, and frozen,Standing on a hilly slopeAt bright midnight,And our hopeIs in vain, or is it not?Legend knows the very spotWhere the moon once made her bed.But the pathway as it ledOver rock-brows to that valleyIs an alley choked and dead.One by one our fates deceive us,One of hundreds will be shownFerny uplands whose pent bossesOf tall granite hide the mossesWhere our Lady's lying prone,All her stars withdrawn, alone.So she chooses to receive us,Out of hundreds, only one.

Such a vale of moss and heatherSpreads about us, hither—thither.Hush!Shall I tell what befellOnce behind that bush.When the rattling pods at noonMade a music in September.Shall I say what I remember—While the long, sea-grasses croon,And the sea-spray on the sandChips the silence from the land?Hush, then, let me say it soon.I have lain with Mistress Moon.