Page:Collected poems of Rupert Brooke.djvu/88

 And after that,

When all that's fine in man is at an end,

And you, that loved young life and clean, must tend

A foul sick fumbling dribbling body and old,

When his rare lips hang flabby and can't hold

Slobber, and you're enduring that worst thing,

Senility 's queasy furtive love-making,

And searching those dear eyes for human meaning,

Propping the bald and helpless head, and cleaning

A scrap that life's flung by, and love's forgotten,—

Then you'll be tired; and passion dead and rotten;

And he'll be dirty, dirty!

O lithe and free

And lightfoot, that the poor heart cries to see,

That's how I'll see your man and you!—

But you

—Oh, when that time comes, you'll be dirty too!