San Francisco's Reply
from THE TWAIN, Poems of Earth and Ether (Kindle)
to Katie Burke who wrote a Valentine letter to her native city
My heart's forever
yours, Miss Burke, let me count the
ways you bridge that fault,
deep-riv'n below your
feet, with golden eulogy,
Narcissus himself
had no greater joy
in his reflection than mine
in your limpid eye
you exculpate my
treachery with a soulful
blink denied frail man
must I then believe
you'll not yield to the human
dance and play me false?
