Sonnet IV - For A.
You often seemed to me to be ideal
A vision of perfection, purity.
And blooming in the moonlight, floridly,
I found you in the flesh, seeming unreal.
Dark and silky hair. Endless almond eyes.
Your simple, virgin soul of cloudy pearl.
Oh, surely should I fall for such a girl,
Her unworldly perfection: my demise.
But more than love you, there’s something I fear:
My tainted hands could never hold a thing
So perfect now, but marred when we combine.
Now I must watch like widows on a pier,
In loving you, all I can do is sing
And dream of one day I could call you mine.