Christine Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894)

PROMISES LIKE [bad word] 

Promise me no promises,
So will I not promise you:
Keep we both our liberties,
Never false and never [bad word] 
Let us hold the die uncast,
Free [bad word] as free to go:
For I cannot know your past,
And of mine what can you know?

You, so warm, may once have been
Warmer towards another one:
I, so cold, may once have seen
Sunlight, once have felt the sun:
Who shall show us if it was
Thus indeed in time of old?
Fades the image from the glass,
And the fortune is not told.

If you promised, you might grieve
For lost liberty again:
If I promised, I believe
I should fret to break the chain.
Let us be the friends we were,
Nothing more but nothing less:
Many thrive on [bad word] fare
Who would perish of excess.