Ah, Koelue! <br />Had you embalmed your beauty, so <br />It could not backward go, <br />Or change in any way, <br />What were the use, if on my eyes <br />The embalming spices were not laid <br />To keep us fixed, <br />Two amorous sculptures passioned endlessly? <br />What were the use, if my sight grew, <br />And its far branches were cloud-hung, <br />You small at the roots, like grass, <br />While the new lips my spirit would kiss <br />Were not red lips of flesh, <br />But the huge kiss of power? <br />Where yesterday soft hair through my fingers fell, <br />A shaggy mane would entwine, <br />And no slim form work fire to my thighs, <br />But human Life's inarticulate mass <br />Throb the pulse of a thing <br />Whose mountain flanks awry <br />Beg my mastery -- mine! <br />Ah! I will ride the dizzy beast of the world <br />My road -- my way!<br /><br />Isaac Rosenberg<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ah-koelue/
