Oracles

34 THE CANNIBALS And we, one mouth to kiss, one soul to lure, For ever wedded, one, divine, endure Far from sun, sea, and spring, from love or light, Imbedded in impenetrable night ; Deeper than ocean, higher than the sky, Vaster than petty loves that dream and die, Insatiate, angry, terrible for lust, Who shrivel God to adamantine dust By our fierce gaze upon him, who would strive Under our wrath, to flee away, to dive Into the deep recesses of his heaven. But we, one joy, one love, one shame for leaven, Quit hope and life, quit fear and death and love, Implacable as God, desired above All loves of hell or heaven, supremely wed, Knit in one soul in one delicious bed More hot than hell, more wicked than all things, Vast in our sin, whose unredeeming wings Rise o’er the world, and flap for lust of death, Eager as any one that travaileth ; So in our lust, the monstrous burden borne Heavy within the womb, we wait the morn Of its fulfilment. Thus eternity Wheels vain wings round us, who may never die But cling as hard as serpent’s wedlock is, One writhing glory, an immortal kiss.