University of Virginia Library

Arlene

Nimble deceit fed the furnace of her needs—
A pseudo sphere of passion turning in upon itself
Ever creating new voids to be filled—
My world became a triangle!
In another age she might have been Helen
Ruling with a bedpost for a scepter
And double orbs to symbolize her world.
A Pandora's box of soul-sucking love
Which I thought I opened.
At first she was Margaret and I her Faust
But Margaret could not have done what she had done
And gone to Heaven.
Yet, all these years, free of her,
Have passed, still I am bound by
The web of her memory
And love will never be the same
—Lewis Sanford Smoler