Let me live as I was born to live ...

by Robert E. Howard

Let me live as I was born to live * * * *

I will be a jester in the court of King Life.

I will rattle my bells until their sound frightens me

And I hide under the royal couch.

I will waste years in trying to find a process to

Hammer gold out of the rainbow,

Hunt whales on the great Sahara desert

And dive to the bottom of the ocean in search for camels.

I will wear out my life climbing a mountain

And when I am sitting on the top,

I will look back and sing praises of the valley

Which I did not see while I was in it

For looking up the mountain.

I will chant my desire to return to the valley,

But I will not go, if Hell freezes.

I will drop toads into all the high silk hats I can find,

Set a bare-rumped harlot on a pedestal and worship her,

Put on blankets and feathers and pretend to be an Indian

When company comes.

I will drag a girl to my couch, handle her genitals until

She catches fire, and then when it is all over,

I will glare and say, You strumpet, you have betrayed me.

I will toil for years to build up a fortune

Which I will then trade for a telescope on a whim.

And I will weary of this in a moment and give it

To a blind beggar and all men will sing of my generosity.

I will weep because Lazarus died and immediately

Thereafter, pass a freezing beggar on the street.

When I am wealthy I will scrape and save

And when I am penniless I will borrow from usurers

And throw the coins to the birds.

I will laugh and sing because of lone gone Yesterdays,

And will see no glory in Today or Tomorrow.

I will store up matches to start fires in Hell,

And die protecting a whore’s virginity.

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Note: * * * *The line of asterisks appears as published in Collected Letters, presumably as Howard wrote it.