Through its sepulchral sewer mouth, oozing mud and rubies, The buried temple discloses Abominably some Anubis idol The whole snout in flames as if barking fiercely Or let the modern gaslight twist the squinting wick Enduring, one knows, the shames suffered, It lights up, haggard, an immortal pubis Whose image, as if in flight, dissolves according to the reflected gaslight What dried-up foliage, votive, in the cities without evening Will be able to consecrate like the shade which settles itself Vainly against the marble slab of Baudelaire In the veil which encircles it absent, quivering This is his Ghost itself, a tutelary poison Always for us to breathe even if we perish from it. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO GALLANT FRANCE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON LANCELOT by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON THEME IN YELLOW by CARL SANDBURG STALKING LEMURS by KAREN SWENSON WEDDING BED IN MANGKUTANA by KAREN SWENSON |