Stéphane Mallarmé

1842-1898 / France

A Negress

Possessed by a demon a negress
Wants to taste a girl-child saddened by new fruits
Unlawful ones too under the ragged dress,
This glutton’s ready to try a trick or two:

To her belly she mates two fortunate tits
And, so high no hand will know how to seize her,
Thrusts the dark shock of her booted legs
Just like a tongue unskilled in pleasure.

Facing the timorous nakedness of the gazelle
That trembles, on her back like an elephant gone wild,
Waiting upside down she keenly admires herself,
Laughing with her bared teeth at the child:

And, between her legs where the victim’s couched,
Raising the black flesh underneath the mane,
Advances the palate of that alien mouth
Pale, rosy as a shell from the Spanish Main.
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