Paolo de Profundis

With your arms full of flowers
and your [unclear: dew-wet] hair
I saw you drifting through the garden
in the star light
and you turned and smiled.

And now you are seeking pitifully
for new experiences
groping blindly for tinted superficiality
helpless as a child in the [unclear: womb].

Why do you hunger for empty kisses
and [unclear: hollow] laughter?
why do you cling to things without meaning
and long-forgotten faiths!

There will be others, Francesca,
others will know the snow-soft curve of your breasts
cool, lilac-veined stone
a gauze-veiled moon full, bright in the star-dew
rhythmic swell of the seas at night
silently falling, wind in the ripples.

And others, too
will sleep in the warm hollow of my arm

But this I know, [unclear: Francesca].
and it is a thing more certain even
than my love
which is strong—stronger than steel
that when the flowers fade at the beginning of Winter
and the fingers of the wind tear at the petals
and-the cold rains fall
then you will call across to me Francesca,
and I shall come.

—R.I.M.

•