Maya

Whither your artifice tonight, O temptress!
In the deepest hour of night I have risen
To find you sprawled in torpid slumber
Hogging the sheets, as always

Voluptuous you are, for that is your Form
Skilled are your limbs in all arts of Love
Numberless evenings of sorrow turn to nights of delight
As deeply I have felt you, caressing your name

Came I to your boudoir when scarce a youth
Bare chance had I of eluding your lure
Not much I knew of the ways of the world
Knowing you, I sought to grow in wisdom

Grown have I in virility and power and strength
Our nights should have been lurid beyond reason
Yet I wake upon a stone floor at midnight and write
While you nestle in the cushions of your plush divan

No more do I love you, well you know this
But not through egregious folly on your part
Beyond you there is no pleasure, well I know this
Since you alone hold the keys to the doors of my heart

But we've been through this before
I fleeing, you pursuing, ever complacent
For wherever I flee, I end up seeking you out
In different clothes perhaps, a shade younger no doubt

And in the passage of time, in the dark watches of night
All my new lovers metamorphose as I sleep
Back into you, as rivers into the ocean
For you are all I have loved, and will ever love

Jealous you have been of our pleasant young son
Moksha his name, curly rings in his hair
Ever does he smile, and is gracious with all
Long hours I spend meditating on his thought

Fear not, my queen, not your rival is he
Though my waking hours seem at times
To be but endless soliloquies in his praise
I seek not to know him as I have known you

It is not in my nature to bear him that love
Or seek to find pleasure in knowing him well
Calm are his thoughts; with simple truth they are blessed
Happily in his company much time do I spend

Yet he is a mere stripling, innocent and naive
And often I must walk roads, with or without you
That he is too young and blissful to see
Or understand if he saw them, as sometimes he does

I know there is pleasure yet that waits at my call
Nudging you awake for drowsy love best of all
As arbiter of passions, you have no rivals to fear
It is simply that beyond passion some silence I crave

I am a creature of the forest, the scents and the trees
I rise to see the sun, and hear the birds and the breeze
Long have your charms convinced me to be where you are
Amidst curtains of gold and petticoats of plenitude

But ever my thought strains to break loose
And travel along strange roads to the stars
To grow out of old familiar forms and shapes
And to span the universe from end to end

No longer will I flee, as one who feels pain
Yet leave I must, lest my spirit slowly wane
This house of my body holds all that I held dear
And must cherish a while longer, while I prepare

The purpose flight serves is to stumble and fall
Draw up new steps and draw in ragged breath
Take up tenancy in halls new and bright
Find you sleeping beside me as I wake up one night

So now, I bide my time as I work on my plan
To nourish mind and body, with the ego withdrawn
I will not take my leave, till you bid me depart
When you see that our roads lie irretrievably apart

A wooden staff I am shaping to walk with me then
A begging bowl for provender the Spirit may cast
I dream every night of the road under stars
A small, upright figure upon it, blissful at last.