Refusal

Beloved,

In what other lands or lives

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