Refusal

Beloved,
In what other lives or lands
Have I known your lips
Your Hands
Your Laughter brave
Irreverent.

Those sweet excesses that
I do adore.
What surety is there
That we will meet again,
On other worlds some
Future time undated.

I defy my body's haste.
Without the promise
Of one more sweet encounter
I will not deign to die.

***

Maya Angelou