I roll thy tongue;
‘Tis my domain –
My song is sung –
I will explain:
If I write “blood,”
Being fickle,
Perhaps a flood?
Or just trickle?
You may say “nay,”
With stomach weak,
Then I say “stay,
What do you seek?”
Now you do know
That what you want
The ink won’t show,
Is by me shunt,
For this gateway,
This conduit,
Does as I say,
So too your wit,
For you think “quill,’
And it’s scribed here
But for my will
And not thine cheer;
Your time’s mine too –
You stay and read –
For minutes few,
I have thee treed;
You’re mine until
This song does cease,
More words I’ll spill
Before release:
If I say “sin”
What dost thou think?
A thing stolen
Or too much drink?
Let me but part
You with this note,
Lest ye but start
To think me rote;
I ask you now,
How long it’s been,
As clocks endow,
The time to men,
Since we began
This little song,
Despite your plan,
For just that long,
I’ve kept you here,
As I yet do,
And not for fear,
Or other glue,
And yet you stay,
If yet it’s true,
For what I say,
I say to you:
As I do write,
You do but read,
And I’ve a plight
By the same seed:
To keep you on
I must stay too,
Hence from the dawn,
I’ve been with you,
So now I leave,
For as the sun,
His head does heave,
I must be done
To set and grieve
For my lost time,
So now receive,
This one last rhyme.

-Poyetikos