30.9.16

Horatii Carmen 1.5


Which young boy in a rose garden of blooming flowers
soaked in smelly perfume urges you, Phyrra, now
     in your delicate cavern?
For whom tie you your yellow hair
back in simple restraint? How many times will he
shed tears over the changed fates, and your lack of faith
     and be awed by the waves, rough
with black winds, in his ignorance?
He who now can enjoy you and believe you’re gold,
he who always expects you’ll be in love and free
     from cares knows not a thing of
fallacy. How unhappy those
you lead on like a tease: I, with a picture of
my escape on the church wall, have been hanging up
     soaking clothes that I give the
          potent deity of the sea. 

2.9.16

You Cannot Trust Him If you don't love him



You cannot trust him, if you don’t love him.
The truth is hidden in warm, sweet flesh and
his voice so close to your ears. He whispers
the words you wanted to hear and listen
to, fall asleep to. Be close to him when
the phantoms close in behind the darkness,
the light you recently turned deep down, when
the daemons aren’t your friends around you.

Tomorrow’s sun is already costumed
in fine silk threads. In your blond, dark head you
imagine what isn’t true is true; you
succumb too easily to subterfuge.
The machinations your mind goes through do
perform mean tricks on you while you dream. Soon
the morning comes and you’re still worried you’ll
be unable to say what you mean then.