Postlude

Now that I have cooled to you  Let there be gold of tarnished masonry,  Temples soothed by the sun to ruin  That sleep utterly.  Give me hand for the dances,          Ripples at Philae, in and out,  And lips, my Lesbian,  Wall flowers that once were flame.    Your hair is my Carthage  And my arms the bow,          And our words arrows  To shoot the stars  Who from that misty sea  Swarm to destroy us.    But you there beside me—         Oh, how shall I defy you,  Who wound me in the night  With breasts shining  Like Venus and like Mars?  The night that is shouting Jason         When the loud eaves rattle  As with waves above me  Blue at the prow of my desire.