Enigma

What else is woman?

With what enchanted breath has woman

Whet and whispered man,

To hold him ever-present at her call,

While rolled along the breakers at the

Shoreline of her takers

She has ever kept her shadow to the wall.

 

For deep in distant caverns with

The comforts of her kind,

The liquid crystal bubbles at the rill,

A word is long defeated, twisted

Shattered and deleted

At some fancy of her puzzle-patterned will.

 

Long lost in lonely courses where

No ravaged river ran,

I sought to lift the veil of her disguise,

And caught the slow deception of

Her ready recollection

In the substance of the truth behind her lies.

 

For though her eyes were shutters drawn

Against her inner needs,

I sought the words she never thought to say:

‘The icing’s bitter-sweet if you

Can only be discreet, but

Never seek to strip my mystery away.’

 

David Lewis Paget.