TWO SONGS
Reading edition
I
THICK-flowered is the trellis That hides our joys From prying eyes of malice And all annoys, And we lie rosily bowered. Through the long afternoons And evenings endlessly Drawn out, when summer swoons In perfume windlessly, Sounds our light laughter, With whispered words between And silent kisses. None but the flowers have seen Our white caresses— Flowers and the bright-eyed birds.
II
MEN of a certain age Grow sad remembering Their youth’s libertinage, Drinking and chambering. She, whom devotedly Once they solicited, Proves all too bloatedly Gross when revisited Twenty years after, Sordid years, Oh, bitter laughter And bitter tears!