Before Parting
Is it not agony enough to know
That we must part in such a meager while?
Can you not summon up before you go
One word of promise, one untroubled smile?
What shall avail the will to grasp once more
This thwarted love, if now in sleek disguise
We bar each wish behind a studded door,
Sealed from the world's, and from each other's eyes?
