The Totem

"The tie"

• Ere the mother's milk had dried
• On my lips, the Brethren came—
• Tore me from my nurse's side,
• And bestowed on me a name
•  
• Infamously overtrue—
• Such as "Bunny," "Stinker," "Podge";—
• But, whatever I should do,
• Mine for ever in the Lodge.
•  
• Then they taught with palm and toe—
• Then I learned with yelps and tears—
• All the Armoured Man should know
• Through his Seven Secret Years...
•  
• Last, oppressing as oppressed,
• I was loosed to go my ways
• With a Totem on my breast
• Governing my nights and days—
•  
• Ancient and unbribeable,
• By the virtue of its Name—
• Which, however oft I fell,
• Lashed me back into The Game.
•  
• And the World, that never knew,
• Saw no more beneath my chin
• Than a patch of rainbow-hue,
• Mixed as Life and crude as Sin.