Ecstasy

Now, O Christ, seal my eyelids, Let ice on my lips be spread! All the hours are superfluous, All the words are said! He looked on me, We looked each on each In silence, for a long space— Our look as rigid as death’s The stupor that whitens the face, In the last agony, blanched us. After that instant life hold nothing more! I head him speak Convulsively. I spoke. My words—a confusion Of plentitude, tribulations, and fears— Hesitated, broke. I spoke of his destiny, of mine— A mortar of blood and tears. After this I know there can be nothing more. Nothing! No perfume but would roll Diluted down my cheek. My ears are shut, my mouth is sealed! What meaning for me now By pallid earth could be revealed? What to me are bleeding roses, Or quiet snows congealed? Therefore, O Christ, I plead to You now; Though when anguished with hunger I stilled my cries. But now, stop my pulses! Shut the lids over my eyes! Protect against the tempest This flesh that was thronged with his words. Let not the brutal daylight Shatter this image to shards. Receive me! I go without stain. And I go fulfilled, like a flooded plain.