Beside the rivers of the midnight town
Where four-foot couples love and paupers drown,
Shots of quick hell we took, our final kiss,
The great and swinging bridge a bower for this.
Your cheek lay burning in my fingers’ cup;
Often my lip moved downward and yours up
Till both adjusted, tightened, locksmith-true:
The flesh precise, the crazy brain askew.
Roughly the train with grim and piston knee
Pounded apart our pleasure, you from me;
Flare warned and ticket whispered and bell cried.
Time and the locks of bitter rail divide.
For ease remember, all that parted lie:
Men who in camp of shot or doldrum die,
Who at land’s-end eternal furlough take
-This for memento as alone you wake.
(John Frederick Nims)
More Poetry from John Frederick Nims:
John Frederick Nims Poems based on Topics: Time, Cry, Kiss, Pleasure, Man, Madness- Decline And Fall (John Frederick Nims Poems)
- Tide Turning (John Frederick Nims Poems)
- The Young Ionia (John Frederick Nims Poems)
- Christmas Tree (John Frederick Nims Poems)
- Conclusion (John Frederick Nims Poems)
- Isaiah's Coal (John Frederick Nims Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Man Poems, Time Poems, Cry Poems, Pleasure Poems, Kiss Poems, Madness PoemsBased on Keywords: paupers, four-foot, piston, s-end, furlough
- The Wild Knight (Gilbert Keith Chesterton Poems)
- Mogg Megone - Part I. (John Greenleaf Whittier Poems)
- Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto I. (Matthew Prior Poems)
- Palestine; A Prize Poem, Recited In The Theatre, Oxford (Reginald Heber Poems)
- The Island: Canto IV. (Lord George Gordon Byron Poems)