A Heap

Passing loose meadows that were just beginning to to be turned from spring glaciers, I came upon a heap of old manure, a rotting specimen of compost giving its foul scent to the breeze. It made me retch, I felt that all my senses were on fire at this spectacle of failure; I tried to console myself that from this heap came the strength of a new nature, but nonetheless was overwhelmed in tides of revulsion and fear.

Passing loose meadows just beginning to be turned
In the glaciers of spring, fields gaping in their hollows
For a hungry seed, ravenous and craving, consummate sign
Of a spring strength throbbing in the soil, waiting to overthrow
A blanket of glassy pearl to replace abundant winter's veil,
In all, calling and begging under the playful rays to be sown,

I saw an old smoke-stack of manure, discharging wretched scent
So vigorous and strange, repast of a thousand retching loins
Hitherto buried, hidden in the frosts. By what providence, what divinity
Gathered it together, unless foul things seek like, and misery
Is politic? This was the testament of ancient battles, creation
Consuming its own limbs, resuming its very waste,
Reproducing for this vile heap's mere sake. A whiff

Put my head to flames, flooded my eyes, upturned my spirit's beat;
My legs became a trembling, the citadel of my corpse threat'ed to tumble
O'er a worm-worn sole. It was the reverse of an ecstasy, epiphany of Hades,
Th' infernal stream run round in a fettering thrice triple knot, lymph'ic lump,
Node where all things crawling feast and vie for such meager sap.

Philosophic I began, "But nothing comes from nothing; all things fail and rot
Only to be recompiled, not themselves, but, like this compost, the seeds
Of their own renewal. Life is an exchange of infinite capital,
Perpetual in distribution, complex refining of the whole;
These monuments of time are features of a single face, whose appearance
Might elicit calm; let beatific solitude compose you then, for such is the expression
Of nature's peace." I spoke idly, for then a wicked breeze stirred up the heap

Into a new life. The mass groaned like a displeased stomach, and,
In present copulations, split. A tide of maggots and greedy ants
Shuddered above the revelation of its wide trunk, teeming
Through the idle earth, and settled like an echo of the thing
On either side. A black stench feinted through the air,
And I grew sick, and turned my neck, and hurled.