Look! We Have Come Through! | Page 9

reverent surprise.
Listen, I have no use
For so rare a visit;?Mine is a common devil's
Requisite.
Rise up and go, I have no use for you
And your blithe, glad mien.?No angels here, for me no goddesses,
Nor any Queen.
Put ashes on your head, put sackcloth on
And learn to serve.?You have fed me with your sweetness, now I am sick,
As I deserve.
Queens, ladies, angels, women rare,
I have had enough.?Put sackcloth on, be crowned with powdery ash,
Be common stuff.
And serve now woman, serve, as a woman should,
Implicitly.?Since I must serve and struggle with the imminent
Mystery.
Serve then, I tell you, add your strength to mine
Take on this doom.?What are you by yourself, do you think, and what
The mere fruit of your womb?
What is the fruit of your womb then, you mother,
you queen,?When it falls to the ground??Is it more than the apples of Sodom you scorn so,
the men?Who abound?
Bring forth the sons of your womb then, and put
them?Into the fire?Of Sodom that covers the earth; bring them forth
From the womb of your precious desire.
You woman most holy, you mother, you being
beyond?Question or diminution,?Add yourself up, and your seed, to the nought
Of your last solution.
_BOTH SIDES OF THE MEDAL_
AND because you love me?think you you do not hate me??Ha, since you love me?to ecstasy?it follows you hate me to ecstasy.
Because when you hear me?go down the road outside the house?you must come to the window to watch me go,?do you think it is pure worship?
Because, when I sit in the room,?here, in my own house,?and you want to enlarge yourself with this friend of
mine,?such a friend as he is,?yet you cannot get beyond your awareness of me?you are held back by my being in the same world
with you,?do you think it is bliss alone??sheer harmony?
No doubt if I were dead, you must?reach into death after me,?but would not your hate reach even more madly
than your love??your impassioned, unfinished hate?
Since you have a passion for me,?as I for you,?does not that passion stand in your way like a
Balaam's ass??and am I not Balaam's ass?golden-mouthed occasionally??But mostly, do you not detest my bray?
Since you are confined in the orbit of me?do you not loathe the confinement??Is not even the beauty and peace of an orbit?an intolerable prison to you,?as it is to everybody?
But we will learn to submit?each of us to the balanced, eternal orbit?wherein we circle on our fate?in strange conjunction.
What is chaos, my love??It is not freedom.?A disarray of falling stars coming to nought.
_LOGGERHEADS_
PLEASE yourself how you have it.?Take my words, and fling?Them down on the counter roundly;?See if they ring.
Sift my looks and expressions,?And see what proportion there is?Of sand in my doubtful sugar?Of verities.
Have a real stock-taking?Of my manly breast;?Find out if I'm sound or bankrupt,?Or a poor thing at best.
For I am quite indifferent?To your dubious state,?As to whether you've found a fortune?In me, or a flea-bitten fate.
Make a good investigation?Of all that is there,?And then, if it's worth it, be grateful--?If not then despair.
If despair is our portion?Then let us despair.?Let us make for the weeping willow.?I don't care.
_DECEMBER NIGHT_
TAKE off your cloak and your hat?And your shoes, and draw up at my hearth?Where never woman sat.
I have made the fire up bright;?Let us leave the rest in the dark?And sit by firelight.
The wine is warm in the hearth;?The flickers come and go.?I will warm your feet with kisses?Until they glow.
_NEW YEAR'S EVE_
THERE are only two things now,?The great black night scooped out?And this fire-glow.
This fire-glow, the core,?And we the two ripe pips?That are held in store.
Listen, the darkness rings?As it circulates round our fire.?Take off your things.
Your shoulders, your bruised throat?Your breasts, your nakedness!?This fiery coat!
As the darkness flickers and dips,?As the firelight falls and leaps?From your feet to your lips!
_NEW YEAR'S NIGHT_
Now you are mine, to-night at last I say it;?You're a dove I have bought for sacrifice,?And to-night I slay it.
Here in my arms my naked sacrifice!?Death, do you hear, in my arms I am bringing?My offering, bought at great price.
She's a silvery dove worth more than all I've got.?Now I offer her up to the ancient, inexorable God,?Who knows me not.
Look, she's a wonderful dove, without blemish or
spot!?I sacrifice all in her, my last of the world,?Pride, strength, all the lot.
All, all on the altar! And death swooping down?Like a falcon. 'Tis God has taken the victim;?I have won my renown.
_VALENTINE'S NIGHT_
You shadow and flame,?You interchange,?You death in the game!
Now I gather you up,?Now I put you back?Like a poppy in its cup.
And so, you are a maid?Again, my darling, but new,?Unafraid.
My love, my blossom, a child?Almost! The flower in the bud?Again, undefiled.
And yet, a woman, knowing?All, good, evil, both?In one blossom blowing.
_BIRTH NIGHT_
THIS fireglow is a red womb?In the night, where you're folded up?On your doom.
And the ugly, brutal years?Are dissolving out of you,?And the stagnant tears.
I the great