Standing on the cliff edge early on that spring morn

He watched the sun rise over the rim of the world,

Painting the cliffs golden in the clear light of dawn.

How he envied the sea birds who with wings unfurled

Left their craggy roosts to soar up into the sky, 

To float unrestrained on unseen cushions of air,

Free as the gentle zephyrs that carried them high

Above his stooping form burdened by age and care.

*****

There was a time when his spirit shared their rapture

In those heady long gone days of amorous bliss,

A joy which he now strove vainly to recapture

In fading memories of each passionate kiss.

Closing his eyes he struggled to recall to mind

The day they surrendered to mutual desire

And mounted up high in ecstasy unconfined,

Though time had now extinguished that consuming fire.

*****

But then by some miracle of felicity

The clouds rolled back and blessed by the sun’s gentle kiss

For a few sweet moments he was once again free

To fly before the wind on wings of carnal bliss,

And in the wild imagination of his heart 

He saw an intimate vision of her face down

In welcoming surrender, naked thighs apart

Urgent for him to penetrate her secret crown.

*****

For those brief moments his spirit flew unbound,

Soaring like the sea birds in enraptured delight,

United with his soul's mate in their promised land

Where they rode together on waves of sensual light

And nightly danced on clouds of mutual ecstasy,

Sanctified by the transcendence of their ardour.

But after that briefest heartbeat of clemency,

The shadows closed in leaving him earthbound once more.