ROSA DECIDUA 
137 
 
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