The Profligate

Peace! i must go,
Though you are all to me,
Comrade and friend,
Mistress and wife.
Ask me not why—
It is life's call to me:
Staying I die.

Faithless I am:
Faithful could never be.
Mating with you
Should have brought rest.
So I believed:
But—as 'twill ever be—
I was deceived.

Lure of the blood,
Whim of perversity,
Harries me on—
Want of the new;
Craving to clasp
Though through adversity
Some one not you.

Craving for sin,
Craving for punishment—
Even for pain,
Stinging and wild.
Craving to be,
Spite of admonishment,
Madly defiled.

Yet ever free—
Though you are beautiful!
None to compare
With you I 'll find!—
Free to rove on,
Base and undutiful,
Cruel, unkind.

For I am thus.
Nothing for long to me
Ever can seem
Clear of distaste.
Fairest of lips,
If they belong to me,
Soon become waste.

Too many wants
God has put into me,
Noble and vile,
Human, divine.
So till life ends
It shall bring sin to me—
And husks for swine.