this will not do
not without you
no:
without your eyes to alight
color no more dances
morning won’t vanquish night
music no longer entrances
what’s that you say?
this soft night gleaming
this city teeming
with all those who
just like you
cry “this will not do”
(this we call vanity)
this too will continue
on our own fateful day?
let us
content ourselves with the conceit
all ends in our retreat
into oblivion’s apse
on this gentle lapse
as the old man rails
as youth’s oblivion fails
all
without you
will quite do
untethered 