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CHICAGO MAY
Could we not trick this trickery of hell's ?—
‘Suppose we died in one another's arms!
Let us not wait for age to dull our eyes!
Let us take death by his black throat and die!
Let us add murder to our mysteries,
‘And face the devil together, you and I
Let us find hope in uttermost despair,
Delight in our division, new desire
In the black fate that takes us unaware,
In death's dark water the eternal fire!
Come, Laylah, come, my sister and my spouse,
Bedeck yourself with nakedness, prepare
To enter the most high, most holy house,
Careless what gods or devils may be there.
Love me! I love you, Laylah! Laylah! mine
‘Though time and space and force and being discede,
Mine is the magic that has made me thine,
Mine from sublime unconsciousness to deed.
Laylah! oh God! the love of my whole life,
‘My life concentred in a single act,
More than a mistress, wilder than a wife,
‘Who ratified our diabolic pact?
God grant my life and yours be one, be one,
One beyond possibility, no hour
‘But bring to ripeness in the royal sun
‘Some fruit of our fecundity, some flower
Such as no spring of earth or heaven can show ;—
Laylah! my Laylah! Laylah! Laylah! mine
Irrevocably from the hour of woe
When I broke in upon the crystal shrine!
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