Executing Severance.

No brooding Mary could be scotched as quick As all the nervous eyeblinks are delivered; My package is a parcel, not a brick To tie around the neck and shove slivered Bitter almonds under each chewed nail. You fevered friends of mine who sit employed, It's more than work which all tense smiles entail. Your kindly pats seem cow-pats to avoid: Your words are far away and feel like Urdu. We all career and carom off the curves: I nod and make the signs that I have heard you3 Yet will pass on, and tightly sheathe my nerves. Now I am older, and I soap my neck To shave the arrant hairs that sprout like thistles Everywhere; with my eyes I check My eyes while shaving: all the foam and bristles Soften the swipe of steel through clots of mud: My maculated collar speaks of blood. Now hat they've taken blood and cleaned the axes All is counseling and hiding taxes. 8.22.97