Ring of rust

With my finger round a ring of rust

I made the breach I trust

I hate to preach

So woe is me

And sow the seeds I must

Love in sprees

New pedigrees

The older peel and crust

Of mice and men

And bird and bees

Wherever I may thrust

With mortal coils

To burden with

A subtle song of gray

If love is lost, no love is wrong

But cautious, though it may

Showered rains in pattern trails

Sadness sweeps the landed vales

Of oaken moors and broken oars

Ships of which were never born

For one may never dream to cross

The river nigh the beams of loss

The melancholy rays of pain

Most undeserved, but ne‘er claimed

Wishes cast are seldom pure

Spreading wings to fly at dawn

If so above, then so before

What we want, already gone

Had we chosen this and that

Never what my heart desired

Oft mislead by simple fact

Split in two, my vast empire

One of which will sparely reign

Just as one was never slain

The rights to rule are shared by both

Whom we where and what we chose

For when the circle fully closed

The challenges to which we rose

Were never made to feel as close

As when we stopped to write in prose