Watching for True Love

That all-consuming passion which endowed
Our first encounter in that awful bed
With hope and honest dignity has fled.
I was too silent, and you were too loud,
You, far too humble; I, of course, too proud.
I watched for love, true love, but found instead
The ghost of truth, denied, traduced, misled,
And made a prisoner in a dark cloud.

I have not executed duties well
Which fell to me and should have been addressed
Much sooner and accomplished, truth to tell,
With ease. Unfortunately I was distressed,
And lost my head. Truth, in its vaporous cell,
Remains a captive, unbowed, unexpressed.

Our Hearts, part 21