Heat Stroke

Said the Lion to the Lioness—“When you are

amber dust—

No more a raging fire like the heat of the Sun

(No liking but all lust)—

Remember still the flowering of the amber blood

and bone,

The rippling of bright muscles like a sea,

Remember the rose-prickles of bright paws

Though we shall mate no more

Till the fire of that sun the heart and the moon-

cold bone are one.”

Said the Skeleton lying upon the sands of

Time—

“The great gold planet that is the mourning heat

of the Sun

Is greater than all gold, more powerful

Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire

consumes

Like all that grows or leaps… so is the heart

More powerful than all dust. Once I was

Hercules

Or Samson, strong as the pillars of the seas:

But the flames of the heart consumed me, and

the mind

Is but a foolish wind.”

— Edith Sitwell, “Heart and Mind”