The Garden

I -wake and find myself in love: And this one time I do not doubt. I only fear, and wander out To hold long parley with a dove. The innocent and the guilty, met Here in the garden, feel no fear. But I'm afraid of you, my dear. There was a reason: I forget. And I by shyness am undone And can't go out for fear I meet My poems dancing down the street Telling your name to everyone. The lichen peels along the wall. My conversation bores the dove. He knows it all: that I'm in love And you care much and not at all. I shall stay here and keep my word. Glumly I wait to marry dust. It grieves me only that I must Speak not to you, but to a bird.