The Perfect Present

By Arthur Henry Adams

SO I have kissed you! And this hour is mine.

Its light along the level future lasts,

It crowns a drab eternity of Pasts!

Here soul and soul have crossed the border-line

Of self, and merged. No years can e'er untwine

This hour from us! What though to-morrow casts

The memory out, and your cold glance contrasts

With this day's rich red lips, need I repine?

No. I have kissed you! And the brief warm flower

Born of our lips perfumes eternity.

From the long loneliness that silently

Stretches behind, before, I am content

To cull this blossom of one perfect hour —

To snatch one star from Time's deep firmament!