Ode to the Ambivalent

You are very hard,
you are very cold
If I liken you to stone
the simile is not too bold.

Flint is cold and steel is tough,
the spark between them brief
yet men have learned and to their grief
it is enough.

And if you won’t or if you will
I think that our impact shall make
the steel to ring, the flint to break,
and flame to rise upon the hill.

THOUGH hour by hour
and day by day
the leopard-footed tread of time
wears down the stone
it shall not soon erase
the memory of your face

Whatever bitter wisdom gained
from you, shall not disprove
this knowledge bred into my bone,
inherent in my blood, that love,
however bitter turned and lost
is worth the torment of its cost.