It Is Bitter

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: “Is it good friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.”

*

Poem:  The Black Riders and Other Lines, by Stephen Crane (1895)
Painting: Mitchell Nolte, Black Light Incantations