Love is Naught
—Of Wings, Hooves, and the Silence That Commands—
“Begone,” the taper breathed, “ere thou be bright
within the gold that shall devour thy frame;
mine aureole is honeyed, yet o’ernight
death keeps his masque within the heart of flame.
Yet still the moth, bewitched beyond release,
did seek his pyre as though he sought for peace.
For what availeth counsel when desire
hath made the wit its tributary thrall?
He saw the pyre, yet deemed its lucent fire
more dear than life, and heeded not the call;
till, through the last, incandescent hour,
his ruin wore the regalia of power.
So with the steed—rebuke him not with scar,
nor flay the hide whereon his wild blood beats;
a whispered word may travel farther far
than iron curb or spur beneath his feet;
yet let his mistress veil her face away—
and all his thunder shall forget the day.
No rein constrains him; no imperious hand
hath mastery of his tempestuous might;
the stable yawns upon the moonlit land,
the wet leaves glimmer in the argent night;
the whole wide welkin bids the creature flee—
yet something absent hath commanded, “Be.”
What strange puissance hath silence won o’er bone,
what unseen sceptre reigneth o’er his will,
that he, whose hooves might shake the earth alone,
stands hushed where every road beyond lies still?
The moth mistakes the fire for paradise;
the steed beholds her silence in his eyes.
The moth became the ash the fire desired;
the steed grew still beside her silent door;
both gave the breath by which their love was fired,
yet heard no voice they had been waiting for;
the fire burned on; her silence answered, “Stay”—
and both obeyed it, dying, into day.
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