You saw not even a gnat to make one wince
While your own buoyant thoughts beat up the blue.
Let me be glad of that. The happier you!
I found myself alone to face disaster
Through age-long seconds. While your pulse beat faster
For mirth, my own—stopped dead, a moment since.
Then, at my elbow—and whole worlds away—
You turned; and I was snatching at my breath
After a sudden bout with worse than death,
With worse than beasts of Ephesus, uprisen