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!