Love's True Face.

It must be so
With changeling eyes we see another Love
Or Love's true face perhaps
No smirking, chubby child
With misplaced pigeon's wings and dimpled palms
More like a lion, all of gold I think
All of dusty gold with amber eyes
Who waits concealed, in endless seas of grass
Where we wander pathless, you and I
Knowing the certainty of the silent rush
The swift stroke of suddenly taloned paw
But never where or when
A cruel fate you will say?
But see my darling where the lion hunts
The prey grow birdlike
Drawn in one quick line
With head poised so, and slender feet alight
Readied for leaps more wonderful than flight
See them where the lion does not hunt
See the gross flank and heavy jaw
Mud manacled, jewelled with flies
Ceaselessly chewing an endless cud of days
Let it not be so for us
Rather the leap against the sky that fails
Meeting at last our Love, our lion
Dusty gold beneath the sun and beautiful
Our love, our lord, the beast
That pulls us down