The Traitor
Now the Swan it floated on the English riverAh the Rose of High Romance it opened wideA sun tanned woman yearned me through the summerand the judges watched us from the other side
I told my mother "Mother I must leave youpreserve my room but do not shed a tearShould rumour of a shabby ending reach youit was half my fault and half the atmosphere"
But the Rose I sickened with a scarlet feverand the Swan I tempted with a sense of shameShe said at last I was her finest loverand if she withered I would be to blame
The judges said you missed it by a fractionrise up and brace your troops for the attackAh the dreamers ride against the men of actionOh see the men of action falling back
But I lingered on her thighs a fatal momentI kissed her lips as though I thirsted stillMy falsity had stung me like a hornetThe poison sank and it paralysed my will
I could not move to warn all the younger soldiersthat they had been deserted from aboveSo on battlefields from here to BarcelonaI'm listed with the enemies of love
And long ago she said "I must be leaving,Ah but keep my body here to lie uponYou can move it up and down and when I'm sleepingRun some wire through that Rose and wind the Swan"
So daily I renew my idle dutyI touch her here and there -- I know my placeI kiss her open mouth and I praise her beautyand people call me traitor to my face