Poem - Discontent in Love

Invest in me, my heart would say,
The beauty of your youth,
Before our days are spoiled with age,
With time’s approaching truth.

For when I look into the glass
It grows less like the form,
That’s borne my name through harsher days,
Of conquest, sin, and storm. 

I see my lights are fading there
That guide to my embrace;
How dimly do they shine beneath
The lines upon my face. 

I surely know, who’ve kept myself
So long as company,
How painful is the winding path
That finds its way to me. 

Against this, how your smile cheers
Each part, and there renews;
I have no strength to tame desire,
Or comfort to refuse. 

But you deserve a happy end,
Whom darkness cannot know,
And not to waste unhappily
On one corrupted so. 

I cannot bring myself to doubt
The truth your smiles convince,
That you deserve a fairy tale,
But I am no one’s prince.