La 121ème Journée de Sodome, In Hommage to the Marquis de Sade

Liberté ! After such corporeal
Affront, how I breathe sweet the sugared air
Deep into my very soul! That never
Should another human's thought suffer the
Anguish I have felt! A torture beyond
Description - one which rend in twain my heart
And cleft it from my chest, still beating its
Defiance ever strongly! Be not so
Cruel to force upon me the memory
Ever more, be not so gracious to keep
Me imprisoned in that poisonous cell!
That you wept blood is of great comfort to
My conscience – that your scarlet tears have stained
Your work is a solace mentally carved
Into my very vision.
         Yet I do
Not imagine you befitting such an
Odious punishment as I have seen.
Run to my arms and cry for the glory
Of that you achieved. Ne'er again will kind
And darkly wailing chastisement subject
Me to such everlasting suffering.
What beauty in its ugliness! What art
In its defiling of art! Be sad if
You must – but not that the world shall never
See your full-throated abhorrent off’ring
To magnificence, but instead cry joy!
The eternal creation you thrust from
Your mind into the light – the whole world can
Never deny you it. Smile and revel
In the sublime defecation you saw
Fit to grace such unworthiness as I.

End.