UPON THE SHORE

Of lovers’ fights she thinks at night

And ponders on her own sad plight;

She walks the way shunned lovers will

When given naught to love but still

From loving him, her heart shan’t sway,

But lonely lives both night and day.

In love or lust the swoon’s the same,

The flutter’d heart, the whispered name,

But one shall die when passion’s fire

Would rage to ash, leave naught but ire

In lovers’ fights and wants to stray,

Then lonely lives both night and day.

She walks along the shore and sand,

Wondering why he cheated and

What’s a jilted lover do?

An angry sea of storm-tossed blue

Invites her but she stops to pray

For lonely living night and day.

                        --Monty Wheeler

*a varied refrain in the Stave Stanza where sestets built of couplets use the last line for refrain.