T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Aftermath
Anonymous(From The Point of View) LAST night, we fled, close locked, in sweet embrace, | |
| Across the empty kingdom, men call: “Space.” | |
| So deep the solitude, I could but feel | |
| Your fear within. It made my senses reel. | |
| I clasped you closer, with encircling arm, | 5 |
| As though to shield you from impending harm | |
| And like a zephyr, from the sun-kissed South, | |
| I felt the pressure of your trembling mouth. | |
| A flame shot through my soul, in that first kiss. | |
| I was on fire. I knew no thought but this; | 10 |
| I loved you—mind, heart, body, brain and soul. | |
| And had—since centuries first began to roll. | |
| And when your melting mouth had answered mine, | |
| Within your eyes, a new-born light divine | |
| Proclaimed the wondrous miracle was done, | 15 |
| And our two souls had melted into one. | |
| Oh! idiot Earth, to waste the dew of youth, | |
| Along the borderlands of perfect truth! | |
| Oh! dolts and dullards, with your feet of clay! | |
| To shun the glorious light of perfect day! | 20 |
| In that first kiss, the past was all laid bare. | |
| The future years, transparent as the air | |
| In swift procession, swept across our path | |
| And left me drunk, with love’s sweet aftermath. | |