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THE ACRID scents of autumn, | |
Reminiscent of slinking beasts, make me fear | |
Everything, tear-trembling stars of autumn | |
And the snore of the night in my ear. | |
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For suddenly, flush-fallen, | 5 |
All my life, in a rush | |
Of shedding away, has left me | |
Naked, exposed on the bush. | |
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I, on the bush of the globe, | |
Like a newly-naked berry, shrink | 10 |
Disclosed: but I also am prowling | |
As well in the scents that slink | |
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Abroad: I in this naked berry | |
Of flesh that stands dismayed on the bush; | |
And I in the stealthy, brindled odours | 15 |
Prowling about the lush | |
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And acrid night of autumn; | |
My soul, along with the rout, | |
Rank and treacherous, prowling, | |
Disseminated out. | 20 |
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For the night, with a great breath intaken, | |
Has taken my spirit outside | |
Me, till I reel with disseminated consciousness, | |
Like a man who has died. | |
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At the same time I stand exposed | 25 |
Here on the bush of the globe, | |
A newly-naked berry of flesh | |
For the stars to probe. | |
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