I’ve often wondered if I’d be happier
If you were not a mindful memory.
Erase the vow I made to you in fear,
Which casts my love to a false forgery.
My stalwart defense, eroding of late
As images of you do haunt my mind.
The burgeoning nightmares do correlate
To all the inner thoughts I bear unkind.
O! Empty sleep, how I did once love thee
And long to languish in thy dark embrace.
But shadows in thy night do now haunt me,
A portentous rest filled with her fair face.
No other promise do I hope to break
Save the one to you I made by mistake.