Like a favourite coat, elderly
Frayed from winters past
His dream is worn:
However, it, ‘though gradually
Greyed (and yet too fast)
Seems reborn

The threads have come apart
And there is none to mend
But although torn
No shred will he discard
But wear until the end
Its warmth forlorn

“If everything that is had Beauty's essence
Were this, as once she asked, my perfect world
Dissolved, the ugly struggle with injustice
Duty lulled in victory's omnipresence
Racism extinct, its cruelty hurled
From each infected mind. Its sick disgust its
Fear destroyed . Could Trust all weapons sheathe
Were War a word with no modernity
What would I do, delivered from this strife?
Within her arms acceptance would I breathe
Again the perfume of eternity
And forever kiss the glory of her life

My thoughts have strayed on alien paths to heaven
And sipped Impossibility's thin nectar:
For slow terrestrial steps, afraid to stumble
Without the spring that youth and friends had given
Now convey a sour crumbling spectre
Stalking uneternal realms and humble
The way I follow leads to lengthening shade:
‘Though memory of her sunlight gilds my sky's
Immense heart-lifting sunset; how can it
Not fail and fade? Night will not be delayed
For at the last it’s Death that never dies
Love's beauty but imagined infinite

Before it can annihilate
This sparkling flash of time, efface
The billion colours of existence
Both joy and pain eradicate
Before it stills this restless pace
Death must conquer my resistance

But not a lonely screamed protest
(At least not ‘til the very last)
Allies have I, all alive
Who also strive, and will not rest
Our voices, when the chanting’s passed
Can leave some hope in Time’s archive

We need, and have courageous songs
And laughter past the point of tears
Age can only slow the dance
Of hope that human need prolongs
As with the gathering speed of years
Decay and beauty both advance