The Secret Splendour

Your Power's Secret

You know how vain it is,

Striving to give you up,

When you can sit and sup

On my whole life with just one kiss.

You try to prove lost youth—

Hair half-grey, wrinkle-lines;

 How should I wander to such signs

When my soul's centre is your mouth?

I feel no Winter's nip

While yours the lower to bring

 A breath of ageless Spring

With those two petals—lip and lip.

Charmed by their smiling rhyme,

 The dull years backward fly:

 Eternity flowers when I

Remember how you kissed first time!

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