Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ECHOES OF PHILAE, by H. THOMPSON RICH


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ECHOES OF PHILAE, by                    
First Line: Make way for the dancers!
Last Line: That was ashes.
Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers


I

Make way for the dancers!
Sappho sings . . . .

Shall they dance
When their wombs are heavy
With the seed of the Conqueror?
Make way!

II

Two come
With breasts of bronze
And feet of ivory.

They dance
And Sappho sings
And the sea echoes.

Bare limbs in the moonlight
That burn with shame . . . .

III

Silver and gold
Is the Agean sea --

The dancers tire.
Silver and gold
Their dark, attared hair . . . .

Delight sinks, drugged, asleep;
Madness awakes --
Beauty cries out, aghast.

IV

Waken, O sterile breasts!
These are my lips that stain!
These are my hands that slay! . . . .

Your mouth melts into mine
As a pomegranate broken --
Our flesh fuses

As dusk with darkness.

You are flame
In the midnight of youth
That was ashes.





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