I mustn’t dare to elope
With such fleeting
Wide-eyed notions

Quell the eagerness
Of your juvenile voice
And bar the flurry
Of wayward hopes

Clipped wings
Line my domain
As an ominous warning
A shrill, beckoning threat

So my dreams may gorge
Upon bountiful despair
Deterred with ease
At the first glimpse of slaughter

I mustn’t elope
For the radiant storm of promise
Stout with adventure
Thick with primal romance

I mustn’t overflow
Into the pastures of kin
And stock their emptiness
With beaming shades of flora