15. The Story of the Ashes and the Flame

NO matter why, nor whence, nor when she came,

There was her place. No matter what men said,

No matter what she was; living or dead,

Faithful or not, he loved her all the same.

The story was as old as human shame,

But ever since that lonely night she fled,

With books to blind him, he had only read

The story of the ashes and the flame.

There she was always coming pretty soon

To fool him back, with penitent scared eyes

That had in them the laughter of the moon

For baffled lovers, and to make him think—

Before she gave him time enough to wink—

Her kisses were the keys to Paradise.