WISDOM-TEETH
When I was a man and a very young man
I straddled the wings of Boreas!
For I was the high gods’ drinking-can,
My rhymes were their ale uproarious!
But they’ve poured out the posset of youth to cool
And I shine like an empty tankard
With a witless smile at the heavenly pool
Where the moons of desire float anchored.
The bubble of sugar I swore was love,
The purge that I knew for knowledge,
I’m bare of the lot, and the winds above
Are teaching me more than college!
The lash comes down and the yell goes up
And the flesh of the fool keeps shrinking,
But vinegar Time must scour the cup
Till it’s clean for a draught worth drinking.
Pour me the stars of the seraphim
Or the wine of God’s chastising!
All that I ask is the flooding brim
Where the tides of the heart are rising!
All that I ask is the ache of birth,
Lords of the Planet Tally,
And a girl to follow around the earth
Or the wreck of a cause to rally!
Naked dirt that came from the dirt,
Cup of your giant pleasure,
What care I how your nectars hurt?
Fill me again, full measure!