The Heart of Samson

 Flight of the Heart

Heart, my heart, what will you do?

There are five lame dogs and one deaf-mute

All of them with demands on you.

I will build myself a copper tower

With four ways out and no way in

But mine the glory, mine the power.

And what if the tower should shake and fall

With three sharp taps and one big bang?

What would you do with yourself at all?

I would go in the cellar and drink the dark

With two quick sips and one long pull,

Drunk as a lord and gay as a lark.

But what when the cellar roof caves in

With one blue flash and nine old bones?

How, my heart, will you save your skin?

I will go back where I belong

With one foot first and both eyes blind.

I will go back where I belong

In the fore-being of mankind.

- Louis MacNeice