SINCE this is the last night I keep
you home,
Come, I
will consecrate you for the journey.
Rather I had you would not go. Nay
come,
I will not
again reproach you. Lie back
And let me love you a long time ere you
go.
For you are
sullen-hearted still, and lack
The will to love me. But even so
I will set a seal upon you from
my lip,
Will set a
guard of honour at each door,
Seal up each channel out of which might
slip
Your love for
me.
I
kiss your mouth. Ah, love,
Could I but seal its ruddy, shining
spring
Of passion,
parch it up, destroy, remove
Its softly-stirring crimson
welling-up
Of
kisses! Oh, help me, God! Here at the source
I’d lie for ever drinking and
drawing in
Your
fountains, as heaven drinks from out their
course
The floods.
I
close your ears with kisses
And seal your nostrils; and round your neck
you’ll
wear —
Nay, let me work — a delicate chain of kisses.
Like beads they go around, and
not one misses
To
touch its fellow on either side.
And
there
Full
mid-between the champaign of your breast
I place a great and burning
seal of love
Like a
dark rose, a mystery of rest
On the slow bubbling of your rhythmic
heart.
Nay, I persist, and very faith shall
keep
You integral to
me. Each door, each mystic port
Of egress from you I will seal and
steep
In perfect
chrism.
Now it
is done. The mort
Will sound in heaven before it is undone.
But let me finish what I have
begun
And shirt you
now invulnerable in the mail
Of iron kisses, kisses linked like
steel.
Put greaves
upon your thighs and knees, and frail
Webbing of steel on your feet. So you shall
feel
Ensheathed
invulnerable with me, with seven
Great seals upon your outgoings, and
woven
Chain of my
mystic will wrapped perfectly
Upon you, wrapped in indomitable
me.