Konx Om Pax

86 KONX OM PAX It seems to tempt a man to swim. I have as sharp and straight and slim A blade whose glamour makes one reel And dazzles death upon the steel. Oh! the stiletto! supple joy— As if some soft Italian boy With all his slender strength alive Laughed in a deep Narcissus dive. I used to poise its light aloft Above Carlotta sleepy-soft. The dusky gold enamoured eyes And bloom of down would harmonize. She used to scold it in pretence Of envy of its excellence. We laughed—but not at the same joke. All girls are blind with their own smoke. A man may come, his lazy day, Cuddle and coo an hour away, Yet in his heart is bound to feel: “ N o woman '5 worth an inch of steel.” Woman has always played the sphinx. An open secretl How the minx Covers her single aim, poor saint! With many a foxy futile feint. The same thing civilized or wild: “I want a man: I want a child.” Man has a real secret—kept Close as a Rosy Cross adept! The safer that the sapient sheep Have never guessed he’d one to keep.