Oh sharp diamond, my mother!
I could not count the cost
of all your faces, your moods-
that present that I lost.
...
Oh, love, why do we argue like this?
I am tired of all your pious talk.
Also, I am tired of all the dead.
They refuse to listen,
...
Wait Mister. Which way is home?
They turned the light out
and the dark is moving in the corner.
There are no sign posts in this room,
...
Loving me with my shoes off
means loving my long brown legs,
sweet dears, as good as spoons;
and my feet, those two children
...
You said the anger would come back
just as the love did.
I have a black look I do not
...
You are the roast beef I have purchased
and I stuff you with my very own onion.
You are a boat I have rented by the hour
...
My mouth blooms like a cut.
I've been wronged all year, tedious
nights, nothing but rough elbows in them
and delicate boxes of Kleenex calling crybaby
...
Father, this year's jinx rides us apart
where you followed our mother to her cold slumber;
a second shock boiling its stone to your heart,
...
Who is he?
A railroad track toward hell?
Breaking like a stick of furniture?
The hope that suddenly overflows the cesspool?
...
Earth, earth,
riding your merry-go-round
toward extinction,
right to the roots,
...