The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar · Paul Laurence Dunbar

The Phantom Kiss

154 of 424 · 1 min of reading

One night in my room, still and beamless,

With will and with thought in eclipse,

I rested in sleep that was dreamless;

When softly there fell on my lips

A touch, as of lips that were pressing

Mine own with the message of bliss--

A sudden, soft, fleeting caressing,

A breath like a maiden's first kiss.

I woke-and the scoffer may doubt me--

I peered in surprise through the gloom;

But nothing and none were about me,

And I was alone in my room.

Perhaps 't was the wind that caressed me

And touched me with dew-laden breath;

Or, maybe, close-sweeping, there passed me

The low-winging Angel of Death.

Some sceptic may choose to disdain it,

Or one feign to read it aright;

Or wisdom may seek to explain it--

This mystical kiss in the night.

But rather let fancy thus clear it:

That, thinking of me here alone,

The miles were made naught, and, in spirit,

Thy lips, love, were laid on mine own.

· · ·

End of part 154 of 424