Page:Tortoises, DH Lawrence, 1921.djvu/51

 Rh And the deep, secret, all-penetrating tail curved beneath her walls, Reaching and gripping tense, more reaching anguish in uttermost tension Till suddenly, in the spasm of coition, tupping like a jerking leap, and oh! Opening its clenched face from his outstretched neck And giving that fragile yell, that scream, Super-audible, From his pink, cleft, old-man's mouth, Giving up the ghost, Or screaming in Pentecost, receiving the ghost.

His scream, and his moment's subsidence, The moment of eternal silence, Yet unreleased, and after the moment, the sud- den, startling jerk of coition, and at once The inexpressible faint yell— And so on, till the last plasm of my body was melted back To the primeval rudiments of life, and the secret. So he tups, and screams Time after time that frail, torn scream After each jerk, the longish interval, Rh