Remember your lovers

Tippett, Michael

Young men walking the open streets

Of death's republic, remember your lovers.

When you foresaw with vision prescient

The planet pain rising across your sky

We fused your sight in our soft burning beauty:

We laid you down in meaodws drunk with cowslips

And led you in the ways of our bright city.

Young men who wander death's vague meadows,

Remember your lovers who gave you more than flowers.

When you woke grave-chilled at midnight

To pace the pavement of your bitter dream

We brought you back to bed and brought you home

From the dark antechamber of desire

Into our lust as warm as candle-flame.

Young men who lie in the carven beds of death,

Remember your lovers who gave you more than dreams.

From the sun shelt'ring your careless head

Or from the painted devil your quick eye,

We led you out of terror tenderly

And fooled you into peace with our soft words

And gave you all we had and let you die.

Young men drunk with death's unquenchable wisdom,

Remember your lovers who gave you more than love.