You can't remember, dearest

For your memory fades too fast,

The beginning of our loving

In the warm and foggy past.
When vapor from the tepid sea

Hung ever in the air,

And rivulets of pinkish mud

Went trickling past us there.
No, you can't remember even

Of the later lukewarm time

When you and I were wigglers,

Wiggling in the pale gray slime.
When our mouths were all our reason

And our bellies all our soul,

When we bred and died and rotted,

By the billion on the shoal.
Yet for ever and forever,

As the cooling waters flow

Past the green of long dead coal fields

Past the continents of snow.
Yes, forever and as truly

As the waters changeless are,

Have I fought for, sought and found thee

As tonight beneath the star.
Ever fearing, ever hoping

Ever winning thee at last,

But to lose thee to regain thee,

In the present from the past.