Roy Scheele 

Defunctive Music 

  Love and constancy is dead . . .
             "The Phoenix and the Turtle"

There is little more to say,
given these two lovers' end,
than we fail to comprehend
deepest love's necessity.

Much, of course, the theme laid down:
how one heart was formed of two,
and straightforward love then grew
till it reached beyond renown.

Every feather they had groomed,
every coo and chortle there,
vanished with that constant pair
when the flame their lives consumed.

Thus the phoenix and the dove
bore the cost of truest love.