Withdrawal

Enchanting is this suburb wide and cold,

With gray streets running into dingy alleys,

And the friendly room where your calm came to fold

Its essences with mine as in one chalice.

I would prolong this life secure and lonely,

Would make this pleasant quietude endure:

Cuba

Most wholly yours-you who are Nature only;

Most wholly mine-I who am Vision pure.

To live here in communion of flesh and spirit,

And the sensual wine, flowing freely for us,

Calmly to quaff from the goblet we inherit;

So far from men, that if any of them should go

Asking who we may be, then in a chorus

All men will answer him: "We do not know."

Jose Manuel Poveda