William Empson - Missing Dates lyrics

Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. It is not the effort nor the failure tires. The waste remains, the waste remains and k**s. It is not your system or clear sight that mills Down small to the consequence a life requires; Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. They bled an old dog dry yet the exchange rills Of young dog blood gave but a month's desires. The waste remains, the waste remains and k**s. It is the Chinese tombs and the slag hills Usurp the soil, and not the soil retires. Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. Not to have fire is to be a skin that shrills. The complete fire is d**h. From partial fires The waste remains, the waste remains and k**s. It is the poems you have lost, the ills From missing dates, at which the heart expires. Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. The waste remains, the waste remains and k**s.