When the touch of warm flesh has returned to your lips,
And they yield as they once did on mine,
You may have a remembrance of foreign-bound ships
Moving glass-like along the great Rhine.
If you dwell on that image of gliding to sea,
Let a brightness beglamour your eyes;
Do not gloom to recall what could never long be
When it’s emptied of any disguise.
Though we danced for a moment by sun and by moon
(And we glowed with a light of our own)
I am beckoned by echoing pipe and bassoon
And must follow the music alone.
Yes, our love was the love of white satin and lace,
And of sunshine across the green plain,
But the lands that I long for are far from this place,
And I’m dearly in love with the rain.
© 2020 Thain Emrys Bertin