Before I knocked and flesh let enter,
With liquid hands tapped on the womb,
I who was as shapeless as the
That shaped the Jordan near my
Was brother to Mnetha's
And sister to the fathering worm.
I who was deaf to spring and summer,
Who knew not sun nor moon by name,
Felt thud beneath my flesh's armour,
As yet was in a molten
The leaden stars, the rainy
Swung by my father from his dome.
I knew the message of the winter,
The darted hail, the childish snow,
And the wind was my sister suitor;
Wind in me leaped, the hellborn dew;
My veins flowed with the Eastern weather;
Ungotten I knew night and day.
As yet ungotten,
I did suffer;
The rack of dreams my lily
Did twist into a living cipher,
And flesh was snipped to cross the
Of gallow crosses on the
And brambles in the wringing brains.
My throat knew thirst before the
Of skin and vein around the
Where words and water make a
Unfailing till the blood runs foul;
My heart knew love, my belly hunger;
I smelt the maggot in my stool.
And time cast forth my mortal
To drift or drown upon the
Acquainted with the salt
Of tides that never touch the shores.
I who was rich was made the
By sipping at the vine of days.
I, born of flesh and ghost, was neitherA ghost nor man, but mortal ghost.
And I was struck down by death's feather.
I was a mortal to the
Long breath that carried to my
The message of his dying christ.
You who bow down at cross and altar,
Remember me and pity
Who took my flesh and bone for
And doublecrossed my mother's womb.
