Garden

I wake and find myself in love.
And this one time I do not doubt.
I only fear, and wander out,
And 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,
And glumly wait to marry dust.
It grieves me somewhat that I must
Speak not to you, but to a bird.