The Book of Lies

KE®AAH OA CAREY STREET When NOTHING became conscious, it made a bad bargain. This consciousness acquired individuality: a worse bargain. The Hermit asked for love; worst bargain of all. And now he has let his girl go to America, to have ‘“‘success” in “‘life’’: blank loss. Is there no end to this immortal ache That haunts me, haunts me sleeping or awake? If I had Laylah, how could I forget Time, Age, and Death? Insufferable fret! Were I an hermit, how could I support The pain of consciousness, the curse of thought? Even were I THAT, there still were one sore spot— The Abyss that stretches between THAT and NOT. Still, the first step is not so far away:—