Sonnet XXVI from 'The Assent' sonnet sequence-a long poem by R.C.Appleton

Sonnet XXVI
It takes no time at all to lose your heart,
But when you lose your soul, there's no return
From falling down all history to the start
Of universal heat, explosive burn.
The all-consuming loss that I have had
From looking for a second in your eyes
Cannot be stopped, will drive me slowly mad
Since I am cast from Eden, paradise
Is lost to me, a certain innocence
That came to me in years of being chaste
Has vanished, and a light-year void of sense
Has opened when there's no time left to waste;
It takes ten minutes for the world to change
Forever, and forever feels so strange.

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