In the dead of these nights you will find me right here,
Whipping hair in the wind, garments gauzy and sheer,
Placed upon me by one whom I knew and knew not
But from shadows amid my most fleeting of thoughts.
I saw his weak smile when I first came alive
(a weak smile was the only kind he could contrive);
And he said he had long been this strange thing... alone...
-- but I could not conceive this; this I had not known. --
"Venus has blessed you, and me in my turn
For my frustrated passion; she set it to burn,
Into flesh she has bidden your marble to melt,
Now to feel what no stone ever hewn ever felt."
That day I looked down, on this balcony perched,
As the passersby marveled at one unbesmirched
By ambition or artifice, scheming or lust,
Foolish heartbreak, or folly, or natural mistrust;
I waved always, and down to them kind words I cast,
Waiting long hours to hear one return them at last;
But the answers weren't kind, and my gaze and my smile
They deemed haughty and noisome, and outright reviled.
Our honeymoon went but from half moon to full;
Although perfect, my slender arms couldn't out-pull
All the praise that awaited him at the town square
For that beautiful wretch he'd engendered "up there"...
Now I take second place to the fame he has won
For appearing to do what the goddess has done;
As the courtesans court him, I keep watch alone,
Begging Venus to give me my heart back of stone.