FAREWELL (TO D____)
by: Joseph Kling
- HAVE placed
you
- In the hollow of my hand
- Little toy-woman,
- And I gaze at you disdainfully
- Or throw you lightly aside--
- Of half-shut my eyes,
- And poetize dreamily
- About your dainty beauty--
- Or put my mouth
- Close to yours
- So that I see only
- The rose-red of your cheek
- And feel the soft warmth
- Of your lips--
- Or whisper half-audibly
- Of the passion that makes
- My blood a tide of fire--
- But after all,
- You are in the hollow of my hand,--
- I the master,
- And you the marionette--
-
- ***
-
- My soul craves
- A nobler happiness
- Than passionate kisses
- And the feel of soft flesh
- In my fingers--
-
- ***
-
- Love is a lie...
- Any man-animal
- Whose lips
- Are at your throat,
- Whose hands are eager
- For your breasts
- Will drivel with lying tongue
- About endless love----
-
- ***
-
- Aristocrats or gum-chewers,
- They purr, and smirk, and sing song questioningly,
- Gaze at each other obliquely,
- Body to body pressed----
-
- ***
-
- It is best to live alone,
- Breathe alone,
- Dream alone,
- Alone with one's sacred self,
- One's reveries,
- And memories,
- And heavenly fantasies----
-
- Here I sit and think
- The world of women
- Will fret me no more;
- And an hour from now,
- Or to-morrow, it may be,
- I will be talking to another
-
- Pretty one
- And every nerve in my body
- Will exult as though
- Inebriate with wine----
-
- Morbleu! What is this
- Insanity of man's flesh!
"Farewell (to D____)"
is reprinted from Poetica Erotica. Ed. T.R. Smith. New
York: Crown Publishers, 1921. |
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POEMS BY JOSEPH KLING |
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