Sonnet IV from The Assent sonnet sequence

Sonnet IV
There is no future in a broken vow,
A broken promise, like a broken lock
Allows for entrance by the high and low,
The gates of reason hanging loose from shock,
All trueness bent, the footings of the mind
Unstepped and shattered, so the open wound
Cries out like a loud mouth for hands to bind
And sense to stop it, living, breathing band
To tie up time and make the days process
Where older habits sunder and remind
Of past contents and broken happiness;
A bandage lust to dress up and to blind
Those eyes too wide, those nights too white, those days
Too much alone with error of one's ways.
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From 'The Assent' sonnet sequence, print copy available from