My love, you destroy me, you rend,
You tear me apart.
You are a wild swan I have caught
And housed in my heart.
My sister, my love, I am shattered,
Broken, dismayed.
The live wings, the wild wings are beating,
They make me afraid.
Fold your wings, brood like a dove,
Be a dove I can cherish
More calmly, my dear, my tempestuous love,
Or I perish.
From On a Grey Thread (Will Ransom, 1923) by Elsa Gidlow. This poem is in the public domain.