The Phantom Courtship
Oh come, my Phantom
Suitor
From the crest of the phantom sea,
For the death you foretold so strangely
Was surely bequeathed to me.
Aye, ‘twas a phantom courtship,
A mystery of sable light,
For you came with sudden silence
In the mantling dusk of the night.
I lived for the night’s enfoldment
As you existed for me,
And my whole heart stirred at your presence,
But I never would die for thee.
You were you, a thing of the
evening,
Of the cool, pure kiss of the dark,
That came to the ship of dreaming
Like a brave to his Indian bark.
You were born of Mother Midnight,
Who wedded with Afternoon,
But you vowed one time in the garden
That your father was the Moon.
You were spirit and soul and reason,
But a phantom prince after all,
Tho you told me of phantoms real
In the center of Phantom Hall.
And we loved till we tired of
loving,
A phantom and mortal maid,
Till you said that in the darkness
Which made my soul afraid.
For I felt strong arms about me
And a warm breath on my cheek,
And you vowed that a princely phantom
Obtained what he came to seek.
It was all on a long past evening
That you told me the reason why,
If I wed with a phantom lover
In the dust of the night, I must die.
And I saw a glittering dagger
And "Phantom! Phantom!" I cried.
"Leave me! Leave me, forever!"
He left me. Years after, I sighed.
But the breeze blew back his answer:
"You love me and I love you,
Tho the life you now are living
Must separate us two.
"But death and phantom loving
Shall take their toll in time
To serve your phantom bridegroom
And make you wholly mine."
O come, my Phantom Suitor
From the crest of the phantom sea
For the death you foretold so strangely
Was surely bequeathed to me.
Rachel Zeller Nelson Collins
Copyright © 1978 by Rachel Zeller Nelson Collins
All Rights Reserved-taken from:When I was Very Young
Dorrance & Company
The Power He Has Over Me
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