Sappho To Aphrodite

Long and lonely are my nights. Come help me Goddess, end my blight; her absence burns me, burns my sides with love intense. Aphrodite, hail or sleet, I implore you to come down from Crete; my altar smokes, awaits your feet, with frankincense. Your love-demented Sappho pleads: Give me no manna and no mead. It's love, not wine that Sappho needs you understand. I haven't had a word from her! Once again make her my lover in bed and bower her breasts should flower, in my hands. Her star-erasing beauty's spell, turns me feverish, frail, unwell. Her presence is both bliss and hell - I tremble so. Her absence scars my empty flank. Goddess you don't need my verse to tell you this. My love is frank, I can't dissemble so. Bring back Gongyla to my side! May she once more become my bride! May she, her lyre and her fire beside me purr. Come foam-born and Cyprus-born, Goddess of love and the lovelorn, my altar awaits you with fire-urn, incense and myrrh.