“And the smoke of their
torment ascendeth up
for ever and ever.”
My love for you is like unceasing verse,
Immortal poetry in endless lines
Consumed by never ending flames. Disperse
It like the incense burned in pagan shrines,
But beauty of this sort won’t disappear
Till universes evanesce and air
Exists no longer anywhere. God’s ear
Will hear it still, past deaths of blank despair,
And black, and fragrances, and light. What’s more
Because papyrus, and my ink, and fire
And words are ageless, they will find a shore
Where worship is perfected in desire.
Obliterated ever by a sea
Ablaze, my love will smoke eternally.