For when they meet, the tensile
Like fine steel strains under the
Of messages that both hearts bear-Pure passion once, now purest hate;
Till the taut air like a cold
Clasped to cold hand and bone to
Seals them up in their icy land(A few square feet) where into
The two hearts turning quickly
Once more their impenetrable world;
So fades out each heart's
Whose image is the surface
By all the air; air, glass is not;
So is their fleeting
Like a hard mirror crashed by
The quality of air must be.
For in the air all lovers
After they've hated out their love;
Love's but the echo of
Caught by the sunbeam stretched
Their frozen exile from the
And lost.
Each is the other's crime.
This is their equity in birth-Hate is its ignorant paradigm.
