Clouds Without Water

ay God ! do not wait then! kill me now; have done! Why do you watch me mute and immobile, Sitting like death between me and the sun, A sphinx with eyes of jade and jaws of steel? Let me rise up to kneel to you and pray! I hate this hell of agony supine. You killed her yesterday ; kill me to-day; Let me not hang like Christ ! Now snap my spine: Surely you know the trick — when from your lips I see a thin chill stream of stark black blood Trickling, the stream ofhate that glows and grips My lesser life within its sickening flood. Be pitiful, and end your cruelty ! Suck out the life of me, that I may die! an { O.f —— V O brooding vampire, why art thou arisen? Why art thou so unquiet in the tomb? Why hasthy corpse burst brilliant out of prison ? Whence get the lips their blood, the cheeks their bloom? Is there no garlic I may wear against thee ? No succour in the consecrated Host? ~ Nay, if thou slay not it is thou restrainst thee. I am the virgin, thou the Holy Ghost. There is no comfort nor defence nor peace From thee (and all thy malice) in the world : Thou sittest through the aching centuries Like the old serpent in his horror curled Ready to strike, strike home —and yet not striking Till thou hast lipped the victim to thy liking!