To my Subliminal Self

Source: Thomas Thornely, London Mercury (1929?).

How came we thus together?

Dark spirit housed in me!

Bound by what fatal tether

Closer than claw to feather,

Or flower to honey-bee?

Thou wak’st when I am sleeping,

Ousting me from my throne,

My past lies in thy keeping,

I spend long hours in reaping

The tares that thou hast sown.

A sage that oft will blunder,

A saint that stoops to shame,

In all thy ways a wonder,

Thou rendest life asunder,

And I must bear the blame.

When I am turned to sadness,

Thou unabashed wilt play,

But in thy ribald gladness

Confusion lives, and madness

Is never far away.

Wilt thou be standing by me,

In Heaven’s all-judging day,

Pleading with them that try me,

Or wilt thou then deny me,

And go thy separate way?

ß