Everything in my brisk, meticulous Waking world arranged (The humdrum opposite Ofmy unhampered dreams, The valiant world under my lids, In which we pledged gallants And staunch companions strode, Inseparable as Damon and Pythias) Permitting me to venture forth, Sanguine, princely, A full-blown leader in my field, But with my secretly allied, Irrationally loyal heart insolvent— When I heard the riveting news Of your cliff-side crash, Poleaxed as a bested crusader Or a suddenly gasping chatelaine, I actually collapsed In the fabled medieval quarter of Rhodes— As if someone had savaged the revealing Strings of an alluring harp—deposed On the blank, cool cobblestones Near the inimitable moat Of Saint John’s Gate, toppled By the sound of your questing voice In sophomore astronomy class: What is this colossal force, This mighty God-spark That binds the stars?— So help me, my inmost hero (Soul-close as a hungry milk brother), My terrific, quite humbling swoon Was equal to the noon-struck moment In a long-ago copse, When a veering Roosevelt elk Leapt before me, As if the astonishing beast could toss, With its imposing antlers, Volume 8 No 1 - Page 27
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