What Would You Do For Me, Love? Poem by G. Newton V. Chance

</>(Excerpt)

What would you do for me, Love? Would you weave a cloud,
A shroud, like Penelope wove, waiting for Ulysses,
Awaiting his return from exile overseas?
Would you thwart your suitors, grown bolder day by day,
Unravelling fabric of dreams to keep the hungry wolves at bay?
Would you, like Helen of Troy, risk the wrath of Menelaus,
A nation and hearts destroy, all for the love of Paris?
Or would you, struck by Cupid's heart-dart, descend from Olympus
As the huntress Artemis to follow your Adonis
Through hill and vale and forest? And when I lie down wounded
By the barbs of this harsh world, would you sprinkle your nectar
On my blood, before its cold, to form a bright red flower,
A wind flower or anemone, to bloom and quick be blown away
Lest another hapless lover, beholding, be led astray, also falling prey
To lethal love for your beauty, oh Aphrodite?
Would you be my Selene, showering Endymion's
Eternal-sleeping, youthful body with kisses and caresses
In your moonlight, every night, without restraint
While I dream sweet dreams of love and sylphs and heaven?

Copyright ©2011