Some thirty inches from my nose The frontier of my Person goes

From "Some Thirty Inches from My Nose," by W. H. Auden, from As I Walked Out One Evening (Vintage).

Some Thirty Inches from My Nose
by W.H. Auden

Some thirty inches from my nose
The frontier of my Person goes,
And all the untilled air between
Is private pagus or demesne.

Stranger, unless with bedroom eyes
I beckon you to fraternize,
Beware of rudely crossing it:
I have no gun, but I can spit.