I Used to Think

I used to think

The mind essential in the body, even

As stood the body essential in the mind:

Two inseparable things, by nature equal

And similar, and in creation’s song

Halving the total scale: it is not so.

Unlike and cross like driftwood sticks they come

Churned in the giddy trough: a chunk of pine,

A slab of rosewood: mangled each on each

With knocks and friction, or in deadly pain

Sheathing each other’s splinters: till at last

Without all stuff or shape they ’re jetted up

Where in the bluish moisture rot whate’er

Was vomited in horror from the sea.