Whispers of Immortality

Webster was much possessed by death	
And saw the skull beneath the skin;	
And breastless creatures under ground	
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.	
 
Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes!	
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs	
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.	
 
Donne, I suppose, was such another	
Who found no substitute for sense;
To seize and clutch and penetrate,	
Expert beyond experience,	
 
He knew the anguish of the marrow	
The ague of the skeleton;	
No contact possible to flesh
Allayed the fever of the bone.

.    .    .    .    .    .    .    .

Grishkin is nice: her Russian eye	
Is underlined for emphasis;	
Uncorseted, her friendly bust	
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.
 
The couched Brazilian jaguar	
Compels the scampering marmoset	
With subtle effluence of cat;	
Grishkin has a maisonette;	
 
The sleek Brazilian jaguar
Does not in its arboreal gloom	
Distil so rank a feline smell	
As Grishkin in a drawing-room.	
 
And even the Abstract Entities	
Circumambulate her charm;
But our lot crawls between dry ribs	
To keep our metaphysics warm.