VI
You grind your tiny shoes into my face ;
You roll upon the furs before the fire,
Smiting and cursing in the devil’s race
Whose goal and prize is Unassuaged Desire.
You rub your naked hody against mine:
You madden me by blows and bites and kisses ;
You make me drunken with your stormy wine ;
We swoon, we roll into unguessed abysses
Of torture and of bliss ; we wake and yearn,
Doing violence on ourselves — anon weare slain,
Slain and reborn again to ache and burn :
Aeon on aeon thunders through our brain.
-—~ At last you see, my maiden? Kiss me! Kiss !
There is no end — happy or not — to this !
~d Io
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VII
There Is a respite — we must part anon.
Short are the hours of sweetness : it is well.
Could such a bout of murder carry on
We should drink poison and awake in hell ;
Or being but mortal, or nearly mortal, yield
Exhausted spirit to the clamant flesh:
The book of common love should be unsealed,
And we be caught within the common mesh
That catches common folk. O God ! bite hard!
Smite down rebellious flesh with hideous pain !
Bite hard ! Smite hard! By bruises scarred and marred
Love this exultant face! Again! Again!
O Lola ! Lola! Lola! Kiss me, Kiss!
Nay — nay ! Kiss not! I cannot bear the bliss.