When into Sudden Beds

When through absence into sudden beds

You fall to ward

Off darkness and to share

For habit’s sake some human warmth,

If who is now gone in dream returns

To ignite some loss and make

The hand that reaches seem

Blind, ignorant of your suffering,

Then, with a larger sympathy than once you owned,

Must you now turn, else all dark is yours

And beds, forever blind,

Will make within them wars.

Whatever’s touched, shoulder, thigh or breast,

With some uncommon pain will burn

When for love you’re asked to pay in kind,

And find you are not strong enough to turn.