BALLAD OF LONGING

24th Poem from the Unpublished ‘Poetic Collection’ by Evo João Camões Fernandes

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Editor via : Solitude and lost dreams reflect love and longing.

Now that my shoulders droop,My head hangs low,And my arms are still,I recall with longing my youthSpent in wild, reckless rides of a pioneer,In fierce charges of a savage barbarian.Love, duels, dreams — I lived it all:I felt in my parched chest the scorn of your indifference,Gently held your imagined breasts…My palaces of light,My castles of hopeAre now shattered stone and dust.My virginal white banner was stainedIn the sewers of disillusion.Yet my youth,My chaste and pure youth,Was not lost: for I have loved!Your smilesPure as snow in fireLeft no spark in my eyes,No fire like yours,How sweet it is to love, to love alone,