Les Cydalises (after Nerval)

Where are our lovers now?
Happier, perhaps, beyond the grave
under bluer skies than ours.

Closer now to the angels
wrapped in ultramarine
an eternal song on their lips

each as white as a lily
drops her sorrows among the flowers to fade
within that budding grove.

The heavens snuff their torches
and kiss their downturned eyes.
They've left the world, and us, behind.

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