This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
84
Leaves of Grass.

Splay and twist as you like .... poke with the tangling fores of fishes or rats,
You’ll be unmuzzled .... you certainly will.

I saw the face of the most smeared and slobbering idiot they had at the asylum,
And I knew for my consolation what they knew not;
I knew of the agents that emptied and broke my brother,
The same wait to clear the rubbish from the fallen tenement;
And I shall look again in a score or two of ages,
And I shall meet the real landlord perfect and unharmed, every inch as good ag myself.

The Lord advances and yet advances:
Always the shadow in front .... always the reached hand bringing up the laggards.

Out of this face emerge banners and horses .... O superb! .... I see what is coming,
I see the high pioneercaps .... I see the staves of runners clearing the way,
I hear victorious drums.

This face is a lifeboat;
This is the face commanding and bearded .... it asks no odds of the rest;
This face is flavored fruit ready for eating;
This face of a healthy honest boy is the programme of all good.

These faces bear testimony slumbering or awake,
They show their descent from the Master himself.

Off the word I have spoken I except not one .... red white or black, all are deific,
In each house is the ovum .... it comes forth after a thousand years.

Spots or cracks at the windows do not disturb me,
Tall and sufficient stand behind and make signs to me;
I read the promise and patiently wait.

This is a fullgrown lily’s face,
She speaks to the limber-hip’d man near the garden pickets,
Come here, she blushingly cries .... Come nigh to me limber-hip’d man and give me your finger and thumb,
Stand at my side till I lean as high as I can upon you,
Fill me with albescent honey .... bend down to me,
Rub to me with your chafing beard .. rub to my breast and shoulders.

The old face of the mother of many children;
Whist! I am fully content,