SONG FROM THE PERSIAN

Willis Eberman

II

The golden youths are playing in the water,

And wrestling on the sand; their flashing bodies

leap like porpoises.

The sun is heavy, like molten fire upon me.

I lie and watch a flight of jet birds cross the sky....... My own youth, a bird, has flown from me. To what Distances departed are the days of my youth?

Now weary with sunlight and wine, I am dreaming

the music again,

And the laughter, long gone... Softly, softly it is

there,

Far over the water, a fantasy of lutes and fragile

bells--

But the shouting, golden boys awaken me-and it is

gone.

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