Bernard Page 7
  knew I had come
upon the sole treasure
that all men seek,
all women desire,
the jewel, the gold,
the magic lamp's rub,
the breath of the god,
the one perfect good,
the meaning of is,
purpose of will be,
nostalgia's goal:
Love - hubb.

Yet more than love;
love more than love
is, if we knew,
and admitted, too:
its victory
is briefly ours

only, for it devours,
its law devours,
until there is nothing
left: law'ah, la'if.

And then I knew
my fate was signed
like a sentence, life
or death: a slave
to love, a convict,
a prisoner:
"Want him? Take him!
He's his own no more."
No longer: taa'im.

The joy was short,
the pain was long.
I was sick to the marrow,
I shook in my bed,