A Reflection
Holding a mirror in an idle hand,
I chanced to breath thereon,
When through the film there gleamed
A sudden face that seemed
Hers I had made my own
Once in that far-off sunny stranger land,
Once, and once only, had I held her, kissed
Her eyes that through her hair
Shone starlike, lit with heat
From fires that throbbed and beat
In her brown bosom bare,
Long blanch'd since then beneath Time's nether mist.
I had not thought of her for years on years,
Nor thought I of her when
I breathed, and brought her back
Down memory's vagrant track,
Sweet even now as then,
But seen, alas, through blurring haze of tears
That sprang unbidden to my startled eyes,
When that face on my gaze
Burned sudden-wise, and I
Bent down with a great cry,
As in those far-off days
I bent to her red mouth 'neath alien skies.
Though the film fading from the surface glass
Banished her from my mind,
It left a sharp regret
That rankles even yet
Implanted there behind,
For that lost day, regret that will not pass.