Reflections on Love

I love you, my mind whispered

to each passerby, all of whom were mute.

I love you, my mind shouted.

I suppose they were deaf, too.

I fled to nature, and fell in love there.

(My Echoes followed, oh my Echoes,

I realize now that I was mute and deaf to them.)

I prostrated myself in my new home:

a cotton ceiling bolstered by pine columns,

a bed of lily pads above a carpeted floor.

My Echoes peered through and saw me sway;

I had found love, with all its guarantees:

loyalty, intimacy, true beauty.

My mind whispered, I love you,

and the lake, in all clarity, rippled back.