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Never let me lose the marvel
of your statue-like eyes, or the accent
the solitary rose of your breath
places on my cheek at night.

 I am afraid of being, on this shore,
a branchless trunk, and what I most regret
is having no flower, pulp, or clay
for the worm of my despair.

 If you are my hidden treasure,
if you are my cross, my dampened pain,
if I am a dog, and you alone my master,

 never let me lose what I have gained,
and adorn the branches of your river
with leaves of my estranged Autumn.
Notes