THE CANNIBALS
Il
Of measured pulses quickened with the blood
Of that desire which pours its deadly flood
Through soul and shaken body; scarce a
thought,
But sense through spirit most divinely wrought
To perfect feeling ; only through the lips
Electric ardour kindles, flashes, slips
Through all the circle to her lips again,
And thence, unwavering, flies to mine, to
drain
All pleasure in one draught.
sigh ;
No change of breast; love’s posture perfectly
Once gained, we change no more. The
fever grows
Hotter or cooler, as the night wind blows
Fresh gusts
of passion on the outer gate.
But we, in waves of frenzy, concentrate
Our thirsty mouths on that hot drinking cup,
Whence we may never suck the nectar up
Too often or too hard ; fresh fire invades
Our furious veins, and the unquiet shades
Of night make noises in the darkened room.
Yet, did I raise my head, throughout the
gloom
I might behold thine eyes as red as fire
A tigress maddened with supreme desire ;
White arms that clasp me; fervent breast
that glides
An eager snake, about my breast and sides ;
Teeth keen to bite, red tongue that never tires,
And lips ensanguine with unfed desires,
A very beast of prey; hot hands caress,
And violent breath that surfeits not excess.
But raise no head! I know thee, breast and
thigh,
Lips, hair, and eyes, and mouth: I will not
die
But thou come with me o’er the gate of death.
So, blood and body furious with breath
That pants through foaming kisses, let us stay
Gripped hard together to kiss life away,
Mouths drowned in murder, never satiate,
Kissing away the hard decrees of Fate,
Kissing insatiable in.mad desire,
Kisses whose agony may never tire,
Kissing the gates of hell, the sword of God,
Each unto each a serpent or a rod,
No whispered
Thick sweet salt tears, till,
A well of wine and fire, each unto each,
Whose lips are fain convulsively to reach
A higher heaven, a deeper hell. Ah! day
So soon to dawn, delight to snatch away !
Damned day, whose sunlight finds us as with
wine
Drunken, with lust made manifest divine
Devils of darkness, servants unto hell—
Yea, king and queen of Sheol, terrible
Above all fiends and furies, hating more
The high Jehovah, loving Baal Peor,
Our father and our lover and our god ! ©
Yea, though he lift his adamantine rod __
And pierce us through, how shall his anger
tame ~
Fire that glows fiercer for the brand of shame
Thrust in it ; so, we who are all of fire,
One dull red flare of devilish desire,
The God of Israel shall not quench with tears,
Nor blood of martyrs drawn from myriad
spheres,
Nor watery blood of Christ ; that blood shall
boil
With all the fury of our hellish toil ;
‘His veins shall dry with heat; his bones
shall bleach
Cold and detested, picked of dogs, on each
Dry separate dunghill of burnt Golgotha.
But we will wrest from heaven a little star,
The Star of Bethlehem, a lying light
Fit for our candle, and by devils’ might
'Fix in the vast concave of hell for us
To lume its ghastly shadows murderous,
That in the mirror of the lake of fire
We may behold the image of Desire
Stretching broad wings upon us, and may leap
Each upon other, till our bodies weep
perfected of
shames, -
They burn to one another as the flames
Of our hell fuse us into one wild soul: ~
Then, one immaculate divinest whole,
Plunge, fire, within all fire, dive far to death ;
Till, like king Satan’s sympathetic breath,
Burn on us as a voicé from far above
Strange nameless elements of fire and love ;
And we, one mouth to kiss; one soul to.lure,
For ever wedded, one, divine, endure