Page:Love Poems and Others.djvu/23

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COLDNESS IN LOVE

And you remember, in the afternoonThe sea and the sky went grey, as if there had sunkA flocculent dust on the floor of the world: the festoonOf the sky sagged dusty as spider cloth,And coldness clogged the sea, till it ceased to croon.
A dank, sickening scent came up from the grimeOf weed that blackened the shore, so that I recoiledFeeling the raw cold dun me: and all the timeYou leapt about on the slippery rocks, and threwThe words that rang with a brassy, shallow chime.
And all day long that raw and ancient coldDeadened me through, till the grey downs darkened to sleep.Then I longed for you with your mantle of love to foldMe over, and drive from out of my body the deepCold that had sunk to my soul, and there kept hold.
But still to me all evening long you were cold,And I was numb with a bitter, deathly ache;Till old days drew me back into their fold,And dim sheep crowded me warm with companionship,And old ghosts clustered me close, and sleep was cajoled.
I slept till dawn at the window blew in like dust,Like the linty, raw-cold dust disturbed from the floorOf a disused room: a grey pale light like mustThat settled upon my face and hands till it seemedTo flourish there, as pale mould blooms on a crust.

xi.

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