A Prayer Poem by Clark Ashton Smith

O vermeil mouth that I have kissed in vain,
O hair that was a golden web of pain,
Woven to hold my heart! -

Since you are lost, and Love is fled from me,
With you I fain would lose Love's memory,
And let my dream depart.

O arms, O bosom, white as foam or fire,
Made warm for my delight and my desire,
Return, return to me -

Or take with you the passion and the pain,
The lonely grief, the longing all in vain,
The dream, the memory.