The Second Time Is The Best

Falling in love the first time is a dream It's like an unanchored boat swept away at high tide: There's no time to think or reconsider: Venture in haste, repent at leisure. Mud castles are not protected by walls of grit: Before you know it the current undercuts the defences, And in you plunge, headlong, heedless of your self. Falling in love again and again is a recurring nightmare. How many loves can one change? How many false trials sustain? Each gesture now becomes corrupt: Hands soiled with dung, eyes degraded with lust. You wander thirsty and starving in the howling winds Like a lunatic lost among mirages in the desert. But falling in love the second time is the best- Not with anyone else, but with your first love. That's like entering paradise with open eyes: The gradual ascent of the sun, The rise of nectar from the ocean, The slow, clear, hard, and heady intoxication, The easy sliding into throbbing ecstasy; Ripe fruit, sweet and firm, cut cleanly, easily eaten. [From The Serene Flame]