Tower of Ivory/My Body and I
MY BODY AND I
My body and I, we rested
Under a thorn one noon,
We talked of days long wested
And nights in the moon.
My body lay in shadow,
Face in the grass, and said,
"What thorn in what deep meadow
Will blow when I'm dead?
And how will you taste blueberries
Bobbing in stolen milk,
Or hear Baron Thrush to the cherries,
Or touch spider silk?
How, when no flesh makes you weary,
How will you find your rest,
Heels to the logs and brown sherry,
When body is dust?
There'll be no sleep nor forgetting,
For I was lid to your eyes,
I was dusk and sunsetting,
I the moonrise.
There'll be no lying in flowers
Adoring the white moon's face,
For I was time and the hours,
Distance and space.
Spirit you, I was earthen,
But color and fragrance are
A dust and a faint wind's burthen,
And dust is the star.
You are the sun unshaded—
But I was mist on the dawn,
Half-lights, shadows that faded,
Glooms that were gone.
Where then, where will you wander
When body's crumbled and dead?"
I'll lie long summers under
And dream you again, I said.