Leaves of Grass.
Come closer to me,
Push close my lovers and take the best I possess,
Yield closer and closer and give me the best you possess.
This is unfinished business with me .... how is it with you?
I was chilled with the cold types and cylinder and wet paper between us.
I pass so poorly with paper and types .... I must pass with the contact of bodies and souls.
I do not thank you for liking me as I am, and liking the touch of me .... I know that it is good for you to do so.
Were all educations practical and ornamental well displayed out of me, what would it amount to?
Were I as the head teacher or charitable proprietor or wise statesman, what would it amount to?
Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?
The learned and virtuous and benevolent, and the usual terms;
A man like me, and never the usual terms.
Neither a servant nor a master am I,
I take no sooner a large price than a small price .... I will have my own whoever enjoys me,
I will be even with you, and you shall be even with me.
If you are a workman or workwoman I stand as nigh as the nighest that works in the same shop,
If you bestow gifts on your brother or dearest friend, I demand as good as your brother or dearest friend,
If your lover or husband or wife is welcome by day or night, I must be personally as welcome;
