THE LONELY BATHER

Loose-veined and languid as the yellow mist

That swoons along the river in the sun,

Your flesh of passion pale and amber-kissed

With years of heat that through your veins have run,

You lie with aching memories of love

Alone and naked by the weeping tree,

And indolent with inward longing move

Your slim and sallow limbs despondently.

If love came warm and burning to your dream,

And filled you all your avid veins require,

You would lie sadly still beside the stream,

Sobbing in torture of that vivid fire;

The same low sky would weave its fading blue,

The river still exhale its misty rain,

The willow trail its waving over you,

Your longing only quickened into pain.

Bed your desire among the pressing grasses;

Lonely lie, and let your thirsting breasts

Lie on you, lonely, till the fever passes,

Till the undulation of your longing rests.