Brevia

And then he found himself in the
middle of a Schubert song,
and the woman was buxom and strong,
but not to be pleased with a

green ribbon as a gift;
and she heeded the huntsman's call,
leaving the jüngling appalled,
and an unfathomable rift;

and his end in the brook's course,
turning assuredly as the melody,
its current his pitiless hearse;
yet his song haunts us as a reverie.

June 25, 2002. Revised April 25, 2017.