For I have raptured lovelies in my day

And sipped the nectar of youth’s tender bloom,

Ensnared fair maids with but a glance or say,

Enchanting hearts across a crowded room.

In youthful times I stood a grinning king

Ruling with smiles and gestures, words of wit;

Sweet echoes of lost harems still may sing

Around that throne whereon I once did sit.

Some say it was a war with love I waged,

For true love’s sword stayed surely scabbard borne;

More true, perhaps, against blind lust I raged—

While still a pact against commitment sworn…

No—at my flank, the endless siege of time;

I fought commitment, to freedom e’re consigned.