The Agony of Lust
By John Herlihy

I
Am I the only one who suffers the agony of lust,
With feelings so intense I think I am going to bust?
Come to think of it, there is no other way to describe it;
But as an agony of desire as if there is no surviving it.
The body has taken over and literally surges with desire;
What’s worse, the mind fills with flames of scorching fire.
You think you are in control of yourself and feeling fine;
You go about your business while a billion stars shine.
Your working day is filled with a multitude of activities,
That cater to your needs and your other natural proclivities.
Nothing happens to drag you unwillingly into feelings of shame;
Nothing untoward happens to trap anyone in an accusation of blame.
Until suddenly this flaming desire begins to crawl under the skin,
A lust filling the mind and heart savagely with a malevolent grin.
Remnants of conscience left behind sounding like verses of a hymn.

II
You cannot see straight and assume the ravings of a wild animal,
Like a hungry wolf roaming deep in the primeval forest on the prowl.
Who programmed my inner nature with this irresistible urge to howl?
Love has nothing to do with it, these desires just arrive like wanton liars.
Unannounced and uninvited, they show up on my doorstep;
These feelings are not mine, it’s my body walking in my footsteps.
The fretful lust finally cools down and then passes me by,
As if it didn’t know me and was just using me on the sly.
This leaves me alone with my rhetorical question: Am I the only one?
Am I the only one to consider the issue and ask why?
Everyone seems to be cool, not demonized by this sense of must.
Now as I age and grow old, lust still shows up like a thief
Wishing to steal from me the illusion that I am nothing but a leaf
That blows in the wind at the mercy of any prurient craving
Summoning once again an agony of lust that sends my mind raving.