96
KONX OM PAX
Yet still the dying craftsman strove to work his lust and pain within
The glittering avatar of sin that seemed to mock him as he wove.
At last his visage pale and grim lights with the laughter of the Pit.
The Devil comes and praises
it,
and lays
a
wreath of fire on him.
“ Well hast thou wrought,
O
Florentine!
Thy work
hath gathered in
its spell
The Daughters
of the Lords of Hell, the Goddess-goats,
the Women
swine!
“ These shall adore
it
age by age;
to these shall
it
give lust and force,
Absolve
their spirits of remorse, and make them sage among the sage.
“ lts eyes shall gleam when Borgia goes simpering
to her stallion,
Her hair bedecked, her jewels on—to
please her neighing,
champing
spouse.
“ It shall smile loose on Katherine wallowing
in
the mire of blood,
Her lovePs’cold
congealing
flood paying their silly hour of sin.
“ Salammbo
mated with an asp shall shudder at its leering face,
And kiss the gilded lips, and lace her serpent in
a
closer clasp.
“
It
shall
inspire
the dews of death
that
stand
on Brinvilliers
the
smooth
And strangle all her woman’s ruth, envenoming
the baby breath.
“
It
shall revolve to hellish bliss the water-torture
and the wheel;
In all their pangs she shall not feel aught but my soul-devouring
kiss.
“ Its satyr lips shall writhe in prayer to nameless Nubian whores that
mate
With swinish kisses to abate the black desire of Baudelaire.
“ So after many
a
house of sin
it
finds at last a pungent home
Sweet as
a
poisoned honeycomb—a
fairer fouler Katherine!