Nemesis

A LOTUS-EATER ever,
Drifting with Lorelie,
Daring Fate to sever
The life-lines lying nigh;
Stranded on desert sands,
I longed for the love I knew —
The dear familiar lands
Where the flowers of friendship grew.
Out of a dismal past,
Love, like a lode-star, drew
My soul to soar at last
Back to my love for you.

But when again we met,
Eyes once alight for me —
How could such eyes forget?
All that I dreamed vou'd be —
With gifts of God endowed,
But ah! for me remote —
As cold as a cirrus cloud
In an azure sky afloat;
Like wraiths, each to his plane,
A new life to begin.
We drifted on again —
O Love that might have been!