Chicago May

16 CHICAGO MAY 1 Could I have forced you once to crystallize ‘The pure drop that I found—but oh! my fate! No sooner starts the portent to your eyes ‘Than in your lust it must evaporate. I made you think and speak pure thoughts—but deed Is smothered in your goatishness and greed! I dragged you to the country, made you walk ‘And work and wash; but you were too far gone, Cheese can't be made, I find, by churning chalk, Eunuchs may safely swill satyrion, Plaster your cancers while you can the knife Comes all too late to give a chance of life. m1 Oh, but the soul is there| as pure and sweet As if you never had defiled it, pure Without attaint, impeccable, complete, Perfect, through all the ages to endure— Ahi! then T love you after all—the years Dissolved in the black bowl—these bitter tears © God! I love you more than I love her, Because you are lost, because you are mere dung. ‘That makes your pearl shine! Stark and sinister The curses wither on my frozen tongue: My God! My God| let me be damned, me too, But let me be the means of saving you!