Nudes -- stark and glistening, <br />Yelling in lurid glee. Grinning faces <br />And raging limbs <br />Whirl over the floor one fire. <br />For a shirt verminously busy <br />Yon soldier tore from his throat, with oaths <br />Godhead might shrink at, but not the lice. <br />And soon the shirt was aflare <br />Over the candle he'd lit while we lay. <br /> <br />Then we all sprang up and stript <br />To hunt the verminous brood. <br />Soon like a demons' pantomine <br />The place was raging. <br />See the silhouettes agape, <br />See the glibbering shadows <br />Mixed with the battled arms on the wall. <br />See gargantuan hooked fingers <br />Pluck in supreme flesh <br />To smutch supreme littleness. <br />See the merry limbs in hot Highland fling <br />Because some wizard vermin <br />Charmed from the quiet this revel <br />When our ears were half lulled <br />By the dark music <br />Blown from Sleep's trumpet.<br /><br />Isaac Rosenberg<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/louse-hunting/
