Jezebel

14 JEZEBEL Burnt in that shameful whirlwind of his ire, Consumed in one tall pyramid of fire Whose bowers of flame shall tell the sky of God How we despised his feet with thunder shod, And conquered, clasping, all the host of death. Turn to me, touch me, mix thy very breath With mine to mingle floods of fiery dew With flames of purple, like the sea shot through With golden glances of a fiercer star. Turn to me, bend above me, you may char These olive shoulders with an old-time kiss, And fix thy mouth upon me for such bliss Of sudden rage rekindled. Turn again, And make delight the minister of pain, And pain the father of a new delight. And light a lamp of torture for the night Too grievous to be borne without a cry To rend the very bowels of the sky And make the archangel gasp—a sudden pang, Most like a traveller stricken by the fang Of the black adder whose squat head springs up, A flash of death, beneath a cactus cup. Ah turn ! my bosom for thy love is cold ; My arms are empty, and my lips can hold No converse with thee far away like this. O for that communing pregnant with a kiss That is reborn when lips are set together To link our souls in one desirous tether, And wield our very bodies into one. Ah fiend Jehovah, what then have we done To earn thy curse—is love like ours too strong To dwell before thee, and do thy throne no wrong ? Art thou grown jealous of the fiery band ? Lo ! thou hast spoken, and thy strong command Bade earth and air divide, and on the sea Thy spirit moved—and thou must envy me ! Gird all thy godhead to destroy a man Whose little moment is a single span, Whose small desire is nothing—and thy power