DROP ON MY HEART A ROSE

by Robert Davidson

My voice breaks against those lips of thine,
Before I leave for war I humbly plea
Let me love you gently your first time
As dumb-tongued my love to you expose.
And then I'll return to thee once more
To bring to thy heart a rose.

I long to merge myself in you
And lie with you all my last long night
Making each to the other fit true;
While love's deep wonder to you shows
Heady passion given for your delight.
I leave with your heart a rose.

You laugh as in my fond arms you fall
As you respond with your passion pent.
But before I answer the bugle's call
I want us to lie entwined in still repose
As in mad delight sublimely spent
You press to my heart a rose.

As the war rages on I see you yet
Mourning red-eyed your lost love. I cry aloud
'If I die, I know you'll not forget
For on our troth one request I must impose:
If I am swathed in the silence of a shroud,
Then drop on my heart a rose.'