Alas, for happiness,
Joy without rival
Reflected and inverted,
Bitter wounds
Licked to eternity:
Unhealing almost-scars.

Alas, for foundations
Laid over and over and over
Yet unlaid, unlaid
Until dreams,
Until plans of towers,
Obliviously constructed
In ivory.
Ivory.
Insanity.

Alas, for friendship,
Recovered from ashes,
Nurtured and teased
Into lifelike imitation:
Flickering desire
From dwindling hope,
Hope where hope must die,
It must, it must.
Be smothered, hope,
You are not mine.

Alas, for eternity,
Endless edges,
Sharper than glinting eyes,
Higher than the ocean's cliffs,
More sudden than life,
By far than love,
For all eternity.