War and Love/Absence
For works with similar titles, see Absence.
ABSENCE
Day after day fades from me,Each one cold and wanBecause you are not near me.
Night after night drifts past,Cheerless, indifferent,Because you are not with me,Because I have not your lips to burn meAwake to a great rapture,Because you are not gripping me close to you,Because your eyes are not looking into mineWith the keen entreaty of desire,Because the loveliness of your flesh is denied me,Because each night I lie alone.
I am fierce, indignant, humiliated—To be chained away from youWhen I desire you above all things.Half I possess you, half hold you, half keep you;But would all of you satisfy my desire?
I am insatiate, desperate—Death, if need be, or you near me,Loving me, beautifully piercing me to life,But not this, not this bitterness, this grief,This long torture of absence.