Poems (Bibesco)/XIV

by Elizabeth Bibesco

XIV

An age ago I looked for you
In silver frost and rainbow dew,
In winter white and winter blue.

I peeped among the daffodils,
I searched the gloaming, when it stills
The clamour of a hundred trills.

Into the darkness I would pry,
Where discontented waters try
To capture moons from every sky.

But wisdom came, and then I tried
To find a place where you could hide.

A shaft of sun could be a screen,
For in the shimmer and the sheen
Your brightness might escape unseen.

The whitest rose would be a place
Where you could hope to hide your face,
Protected by a double grace.

Or bathing naked in a stream
A man might see your body gleam,
And shut his eyes to keep the dream.

And, were you seeking alibis,
Delphinium pools and larkspur skies
Would offer shelter to your eyes.

Where can I search, when just for you
Gold will conspire with white and blue,
And suns turn water into dew?

I think I'll wait until I see,
Released from beauty, wearily,
A woman coming back to me.

When suns go in, and petals fall,
And greyness slinks about us all,
Maybe you'll find a different place
To shut your eyes and hide your face,
And in the heart you left behind
An everlasting refuge find.