To Rose Who Is Far Away From Me

I think of you being a universe away— it cuts like broken glass, being apart from you and all alone and without a bright ray that's you to keep me from growing so blue. If I could fly like a bird and appear at your front door like a long-lost, old letter I'd move both heaven and Earth to be near you,—nothing under heaven could be better! Tho' I am poor my words are filled with riches and emeralds for a beautiful, high princess like you—a sweet, highborn girl who bewitches all with her charming brilliance and great rictus. To please you I would scale tall mountains and plumb the depths of under-sea valleys; and like de León I'd search the lost fountains of youth for you 'til I grow feeble in both knees. Together, we are the Shepherd and Lamb; I'd lead you to graze in the tall, green grasses where the fields are watered by the brick dam ahead of the dry and dusty, dirt passes. I am the river and you are the sea; my love flows into you like the Ganges; like seed, I'd flower in your open lea and sprout in your heart’s crannies. I am the soil and you are the Rose, rouge-tinted with life and fertile beauty; you'd reek of great wisdom to every nose and be sage beyond the ripe age of ninety. Like a bottomless sea my love runs deep for you and will never run dry or run cold: thus, with these words of mine you can keep them near you and treasure them like gold.