Myrtle and Myrrh/Retribution

by Ameen Rihani

 

RETRIBUTION

How I did hold in deep contempt
The slaves and queens of love!
How I disguised my feelings when
I met a deer or a dove!
How I did smile and sniff and rail
At lovers young and old;
How I denied, in days gone by,
O love, thy charms untold!
But now, alas! I find myself
In chains at Beauty's shrine:
The chains whose power I have denied
Are sapping, sapping mine.