One Step On...

I can see the pit of darkness stretched

Before my hapless eyes

And another week should see me in its fold,

For my steps have long been faster

At the brink of my disaster

When the master plan refuses to be told.

 

But from some deep, hidden augury,

Eternal stories spring,

And the loss of me may be some other’s gain,

If it weren’t for bitter memories

Dredged from the darkening rill

Of your being, I might even love again.

 

I remember how the forays first

Were thwarted at the pass,

Where your armies dug in tight around your eyes,

How my heavy armour failed me

And your cynicism railed,

But a flower brought the first of your replies.

 

And from some embattled ridge

I first saw the silver bridge

Of your smile, though it settled not on me.

Till my squad of engineers, filled your

Eyes and mouth and ears,

With the sight and taste and sound of certainty.

 

And a frontal, forced attack, sent you

Reeling, wheeling back,

With my armour at the gates of your defence,

So I strutted through the posterns of

Your dilettantish mind,

And the masque of each and every sad pretence.

 

But my victory was over long

Before I lost the war

In the clinging mire of Flander’s muddy gown,

And I tried to pull my army back

From Dunkirk’s smooth and silken rack,

But floundered in the rigor of your frown.

 

My armies have been scattered and

I’m chained at the abyss

Of your tempers, and the emptiness of mine,

Though your love is all-consuming at

The height of your desire,

Your frantic freedoms warn you to decline.

 

I'm afraid of hidden mists and things

Unknown that may persist

When in the future gloom I’m cast without a light,

For my army has been battered, beaten,

Broken up and scattered, leaving

No intrigues to see me through the night.

 

In the furnace of your brain my

Burning image will remain,

Despite your search to quench your mad desire,

Though I’m lost to all I knew, I’ll be

Better off than you,

For darkness burns a cooler flame than fire.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

This seems more a battle of wills and the eventual conquer of man over woman than a battle on the field.

You've hid your eroticism in a cloak of armour, but I believe your fire burns hotter still.

Linda Marie Van Tassell