When a boy I was wrenched in a gin hidden in a garden of roses: thus am I lame.
Later was slugged on the head by the Father of Lies—the Ideal:
But I laughed and hallooed, “Come, To-morrow!”
I have been bushwhacked by women, gnawed to the bone by a great ancient lust:
All things I touched turned slime-green and black-hideous thoughts played ’round my night-pillow like rats ’round the new-dead:
But I laughed and hallooed, “Come, To-morrow!”
I used to say, “God?—why, that is myself!”
The world took me seriously, set me up for a savior:
But I laughed, doffed aureole, and hallooed, "Come, To-morrow!"
Then I donned horns and tail and cried, “Behold! I am Lucifer!”
So they stoned me till I looked like a shambles:
But I laughed and hallooed, “Come, To-morrow!”
I bought from a drab a filthy old handkerchief, exhibited it as the Veil of Isis.
The popes of philosophy bowed down to me and mumbled “Eureka!”
But I laughed (for I knew) and hallooed, “Come, To-morrow!”
Well, here am I now, a butt-end, awaiting translation.
The world I have found a small box with endless false bottoms;
I have come to the tomb, a little clay box which, too, is false bottomed:
I call into it, laugh and halloo, “Come, TO-MORROW!”
Publication History
- The Shadow-Eater [1915/17 and 1923]
- “Poems of a Shadow Eater” (syndicated review with several poems included)
- Excerpt: First 3 lines and final 4 lines, separated by a dotted line
- Text changes:
- roses: > roses;
- the Ideal > the ideal
- false bottomed: > false-bottomed.
1923 edition text changes:
- [New stanza after each “Come, To-morrow!” line]
- slime-green and black-hideous > slime-green ⁋ And black-hideous
- “Come, TO-MORROW!” > “Come, To-morrow!”
