Rosa Decidua

8 ROSA DECIDUA These years I have watched her fade, my masterful love And all-embracing pity strove Like athletes in an amorous bout to make Some child to tread upon that snake. But ever the worm slipped, escaped ; its spires Here crushed, there rose the stronger for the pressure That gave it purchase ; keener flamed the fires In its eyes triumphant. Now its soul asserts Its master-pleasure ; The worm exerts Its adult might, and in one bout The spine snaps of that child of Love and Pity, And mangled he falls out Of the fight. Just so child Hercules Strangled two serpents in his pretty Red fists, achieved twelve labours, won to ease, And was done down to death and madness by The subtle poison that himself distilled. So all the God in life is chilled To a corpse. The informing one ? God’s a cast clout Of a leper ! Leave me here, corruptest of earth’s whores To scrape my sores ! Cry like a dog and run about the city ! There is no word left, now the deed is dead ! No thought of her is in me ; I am a stranger To all that dream of danger And bliss that Rose was. The green shoots