Snap-Dragon

 She bade me follow to her garden where 
The mellow sunlight stood as in a cup 
Between the old grey walls; I did not dare 
To raise my face, I did not dare look up 
Lest her bright eyes like sparrows should fly in 
My windows of discovery and shrill 'Sin!' 

So with a downcast mien and laughing voice 
I followed, followed the swing of her white dress 
That rocked in a lilt along: I watched the poise 
Of her feet as they flew for a space, then paused to press 
The grass deep down with the royal burden of her: 
And gladly I'd offered my breast to the tread of her.
 

'I like to see,' she said, and she crouched her down, 
She sunk into my sight like a settling bird; 
And her bosom crouched in the confines of her gown 
Like heavy birds at rest there, softly stirred 
By her measured breaths: 'I like to see,' said she, 
'The snap-dragon put out his tongue at me.
' 

She laughed, she reached her hand out to the flower 
Closing its crimson throat: my own throat in her power 
Strangled, my heart swelled up so full 
As if it would burst its wineskin in my throat, 
Choke me in my own crimson; I watched her pull 
The gorge of the gaping flower, till the blood did float 

Over my eyes and I was blind -- 
Her large brown hand stretched over 
The windows of my mind, 
And in the dark I did discover 
Things I was out to find: 

My grail, a brown bowl twined 
With swollen veins that met in the wrist, 
Under whose brown the amethyst 
I longed to taste: and I longed to turn 
My heart's red measure in her cup, 
I longed to feel my hot blood burn 
With the lambent amethyst in her cup.
 

Then suddenly she looked up 
And I was blind in a tawny-gold day 
Till she took her eyes away.

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