Dear faces startled and shaken, Out of wild dust and sounds You yearn to me, lure and sadden My heart with futile bounds. THE IMMORTALS I killed them, but they would not die. Yea, all the day and all the night For them I could not rest nor sleep, Nor guard from them nor hide in flight! Then in my agony I turned And made my hands red in their gore. In vain—for faster than I slew They rose more cruel than before. I killed and killed with slaughter mad; I killed till all my strength was gone; And still they rose to torture me, For Devils only die for fun. I used to think the Devil hid In women’s smiles and wine’s carouse; I called him Satan, Balzebub; But now I call him dirty louse. LOUSE HUNTING Nudes, stark and glistening, Yelling in lurid glee. Grinning faces And raging limbs Whirl over the floor one fire; For a shirt verminously busy Yon soldier tore from his throat With oaths Godhead might shrink at, but not the lice, And soon the shirt was aflare Over the candle he’d lit while we lay. Then we all sprang up and stript To hunt the verminous brood. Soon like a demons’ pantomime This plunge was raging. See the silhouettes agape, See the gibbering shadows Mixed with the baffled arms on the wall. See Gargantuan hooked fingers Pluck in supreme flesh To smutch supreme littleness. See the merry limbs in that Highland fling Because some wizard vermin willed To charm from the quiet this revel When our ears were half lulled By the dark music Blown from Sleep’s trumpet. GIRL TO SOLDIER ON LEAVE I love you, Titan lover, My own storm-days’ Titan. Greater than the son of Zeus, I know whom I would choose. Titan—my splendid rebel— The old Prometheus Wanes like a ghost before your power: His pangs were joys to yours. Pallid days, arid and wan, Tied your soul fast: Babel-cities’ smoky tops Pressed upon your growth