CONCUPISCENCE

Night interdiction -

the mind won’t allow

acceptance.

The spirit yearns for that bodily release.

Rejection!

But frailty of frame,

excess of desire,

force of reponse

conspire!

We put it from our minds,

but how to put it from our flesh?

Disparage it? Spurn it? Disavow?

What results?

The feeble, grasping, clutching wish –

master to the deed.

And then in retrospect we think:

it’s really not too bad,

nor too disgusting,

nor sick.

Rationalisation!

It is all those things

and more besides.

But still we crave it.

London (‘fifties)