Erotica/Possession

by Arthur Clark Kennedy

For works with similar titles, see Possession.

Possession

Around my neck her soft arms twine,
My kisses fleck her bosom's snow,
Her breath intoxicates like wine,
And sends the blood's imperious flow
Mantling across my eyes; I know
At last that she is wholly mine.

And I am hers. Each pulse of me
Beats red rebellion, and each vein
Swells with an overwhelming sea
Of sad, glad, pleasurable pain
Pervading every sense, my brain
Throbs with a mad intensity.

Passing through realms of star and cloud,
Scaling the mountains of the moon,
My soul ascends, my body bowed
O'er her fair form in seeming swoon,
Unstrung by Love's almighty tune,
Reels far below; sensations crowd

Upon sensations, like the waves
Follow waves shorewards, so they beat
Upon my being; each one paves
The way for its successor's feet
To follow faster, till with heat
Made faint, they trip among the graves

Of former joys; confused they fall
Dead 'mid dead ashes scattered there.
Earthbound once more, and stripped of all
Illusions, through the breathless air
My soul sinks slowly back, aware
Of waiting Sleep's incorporate pall.