The Eternal

by​ Jason Potter

I can only expect the deferment of death for a moment.
Then I shall return and spit out blood, and through the breaking
Of a vein the sounds of a human voice will be stopped.
The parts of a woman’s body do breathe out signs,
And none else is real. I would not long remain here,
Where every man has an evil name and dogs do
Often move almost on a straight line.
Yet smoke and burning will be sufficient.

I exercise the right of private judgement, and put
The body into unnatural shape and simulate disorder.
I shall breathe the same way as she,
And move no longer to aversion.
The innumerable vermin that suck blood
Will burn in the common air,
And I shall not remain here to be seen or abused.
And suppose the devil assume to himself a real body,
To be procreate of my body, and all well made before the end.
Pulses beat, and I take nothing from the air but what is eternal.