Sonnets (1965) Poem by Sandy Fulton

i.
I wonder why your ships are painted green
While ours are gray? I've heard some sailors say
That swift ships, camouflaged, can move unseen
Against the sea. Strange, though, it's always cold gray
Winter's sea that we anticipate.
I think perhaps you're wiser with your green.
It is as though you mean to imitate
The warmer, friendlier seas that lie between
The tropics. I wonder, could it be
Your ships are prayers, their paint a subtle way
To challenge God to grant a happier sea
Than we'd expect in our dour ships of gray?
If so, I pray that God hears your green prayer
And sends you always green seas, calm and fair.

ii.
When I consider that one kiss could be
The brief spark of an all-consuming fire
That stripped our astonished hearts and nakedly
Revealed us in our unashamed desire
For one another, I wonder that the world
Was not consumed as well, and perforce hurled
Out of her orbit, to drift into the void
Of whirling interstellar space; while we,
Oblivious to all but the dark warm
Press of one another's lips, would be
For an instant spared. Then, destroyed,
We too would pass from humble mortal form
Into happy infinity together,
Where life and love and lovers live for ever.

iii.
Sometimes two who should be lovers meet;
So it was with us. Our three days
Were far too few; wine tastes bittersweet
When the reluctant final glasses raise
To lips that never in eternity
Shall kiss again: lips that when first we met
Were starved for talk. So we spoke of much
That mattered, never sensing that the net
Was tightening on us till our lips must touch
And cling, and cry out from the hungry heart
Words that perhaps were better left unsaid,
Because we knew that too soon we must part,
And what we hungered for could never be:
For I was innocent and you were wed.

iv.
If off to some far island we could run
To live in comfort and our hearts' content
And give ourselves to love, where the warm sun
Would faithfully shine and our only tent
At night would be the bright high stars and moon,
Where by our grassy bed cool streams would flow
Through orchards of sweet spicy fruits, how soon,
I wonder, would it be before we'd go
Down to the strand to search the restless sea
For any passing ship? So then, lest you
Or I dream of a refuge to which we
Might fly, we must recall our prior ties
And solemn obligations to all who
Would miss us: for with them our duty lies.

v.
Let us spare ourselves from even brief
Regrets when we remember our last night
Together; nor should we mourn the grief
Our parting caused us. No one can say
Whether our final kiss were wrong or right,
And if a little honest sorrow may
Or not have hurt us. May we soon forget
All partial guilts and sorrows now that we
Are ever parted. Should we not regret
Instead that time and opportunity
Forbade us that which we so greatly wanted?
As for myself, each night my bed is haunted
By a ghost-love I hold till break of day,
But who, when I awaken, fades away