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Holy of holies

Confessions of an anarchist [by J. E. Barlas]

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 I. 
 II. 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 VIII. 
 IX. 
 X. 
 XI. 
 XII. 
 XIII. 
 XIV. 
 XV. 
 XVI. 
 XVII. 
 XVIII. 
 XIX. 
 XX. 
 XXI. 
 XXII. 
 XXIII. 
 XXIV. 
 XXV. 
 XXVI. 
 XXVII. 
 XXVIII. 
 XXIX. 
 XXX. 
 XXXI. 
 XXXII. 
 XXXIII. 
 XXXIV. 
 XXXV. 
 XXXVI. 
 XXXVII. 
 XXXVIII. 
XXXVIII.
 XXXIX. 
 XL. 
 XLI. 
 XLII. 
 XLIII. 


42

XXXVIII.

[Am I not bound? There scarcely lives on earth]

Am I not bound? There scarcely lives on earth
A life more triply fettered than I lead,
A toiler to the galley chained, my meed
Man's idiot laughter and fate's furial mirth.
I sit down in the ashes on life's hearth,
And to the cinders spread my frozen feet:
But, preying on my heart, there is a heat
That makes a garden in the midst of dearth;
But, kindling in my breast, there is a hope,
A deathless courage, an immortal love,
That shall not leave me, till into the dust,
The charred black dust, in which I daily grope
And gnaw for comfort, and find food enough,
My life too crumbles in an iron rust.
March 21st, 1886.