My damask dagger with a soul of steel,
I love you! Comrade chill and bright,
Forged by a brooding Georgian for revenge.
A free Circa**ian honed you for the fight.
A lily-hand brought you to me in parting,
A keepsake of a time too brief
And then for once not blood flowed down your edge
But a light tear: a pearl of grief.
Fixated onto mine, her two black eyes
Filled with a sad mysterious dream
Like your raw steel put to the quavering fire
Were dim one instant, then agleam.
Love's wordless pledge, bestowed as my companion
In travel, give me council to the end.
Yea I will never change, my spirit steeled
Like you, like you, my damask friend.