Nearer Than You

How can a woman tell when love is gone
From love that merely sleeps but deep inside
Has still the root the stem and flower grow on
And so dreams not to die but sleeps to hide?
Perhaps when the clouds drifting by make more noise
Than amorous whispers you aimlessly breathe
And croakings of paddocks speak with greater poise
Than lilypad speeches with nothing beneath
And so I'll confess what I know to be true
Bullfrogs have more eloquence than do you
When days are longer than they used to be
And nights are maddening eternity
With only forced sighs to interrupt
The same repose your lips would once corrupt
I'll steal me away so your soul shall not wake
Though more than my absence to rouse it would take
Across from the meadow and down to the pond
To sink myself up to the waist then beyond
For water knows better in love what to do
And plays with its prey with more passion than you
In dreaming one may oft' release his grasp
On what to conscious minds is naught but clear
That once the time of questioning is near
Chance there is none to hide the fatal asp
Who follows me silently onto the shore
Where I learn to cherish my new solitude
And feel with precision what ere had been rude
Yes, I shall return to thy bed nevermore
Born was I with one heart; I ask not for two
When rushes and lilies press nearer than you