Pleasure, Prussian Pain: Verlaine Remembers Arthur’s Eyes
Your eyes went blue in through my heart, straight through
The blue that was my heart and bored through night,
Straight through my night and out into a new
Blue dawn, a morn so full of blue and might
That light itself will never be the same.
Your two-toned irises went doubly deep,
A double-edged invasion made of shame
And bliss, the darker blue with blackness steep
And true, the lighter hue and brightness like
A sweep of sadness mixed with joy, like blasts
Of meteors as lovely in their strike
Against the zenith as some blue that lasts
Forever. Apatite, unmixed, alone
God ringed with indigo to make me groan.