Stones from the Sun
from Love and Violence, 1986

If the cause ask for death let it kill
If the love ask for blood let it move
- Stephen Spender

You have betrayed me tonight;
All my hopes built up
Throughout the long day
Have been dashed by your
Callous action.
My dreams of the future
Were heightened last night,
Now I tremble but cannot weep.
Such disappointment can never
Be forgotten.

What the last evening had brought:
Cheer amidst the drink,
Laughter at the party;
It turns to dust
And the wind disperses.
The taste of honey
Bitter in my mouth –
A greeting steeped in wormwood.
The seas of my fate,
Oceans of the coldest rage,
Are turned against you
Wherever you smile tonight
In the corner of dim taverns.

Those who sit with you,
As I should have sat,
My pity goes out to them –
And my jealousy and hate.
So with a single-mindedness
My curse brings blood from the vine,
Stones fron the sun,
Against you, vile servant
Of my blackest moments.

May you drown in your own
Brackish tears;
And may your mind crystallise
And shatter.
May the daggers of your foolishness
Cut the heart of the one
You love the most.

My will would pulverise the skull,
Crush the bone which feeds this horror.
I twist and I turn
But no avenue of escape is open to me.
Then cry as I have cried
And die as I have died a million times before.

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