Poems (Bibesco)/XIX Banishment
XIXBANISHMENT
Could you but walk but always you must fly;I am so weary of your tireless wings.Why must you make me perfect with a lie?I am so hungry for imperfect things.
Why should I be this phantom of desirePlanted amidst the glitter of the stars?I crave the smoky flicker of a fire,And some small battle with its pride of scars.
You have condemned me to these unsought skies,You who can worship but who cannot love,Whose icy vision turns unseeing eyesOn all the mysteries that life can prove.
Must you adore me as if I were dead?And all my cherished weaknesses were vain?Why should you put a halo round my headWhen I have asked you for a daisy chain?
Give me one little folly that is mine!Why should I be the captive of your art—A flawless image prisoned in a shrine,Far from the wanton tarnish of the heart,
You do not know the turmoil and the tanglesThe tugging mysteries that living brings;Your pure perfection stretches till it stranglesThe stumbling loveliness of little things.
Could I but break your dream and make you seeA cloudy morning and a starless night,Some splinters of a broken ecstasyThe many fragments that are called delight.
But your hard dream has conquered even fate!I shall for ever sit upon my throneRemoved from hope or doubt, from love or hate—A ghost of beauty that you call your own.