Prison Song

A poem by Alan Dugan

The skin ripples over my body like moon-wooed water,

rearing to escape me. Where could it find another

animal as naked as the one it hates to cover?

Once it told me what was happening outside,

who was attacking, who caressing, and what the air

was doing to feed or freeze me. Now I wake up

dark at night, in a textureless ocean of ignorance,

or fruit bites back and water bruises like a stone.

It’s jealousy, because I look for other tools to know

with, and other armor, better girded to my wish.

So let it lie, turn off the clues or try to leave:

sewn on me seamless like those painful shirts

the body-hating saints wore, the sheath of hell

is pierced to my darkness nonetheless: what traitors

labor in my face, what hints they smuggle through

its arching guard! But even in the night it jails,

with nothing but its lies and silences to feed upon,

the jail itself can make a scenery, sing prison songs,

and set off fireworks to praise a homemade day.

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Poems in English 

• Three Songs Of Zahir U Din by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Thoughts Mahomed Akram by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Though In My Firmament Thou Wilt Not Shine by Adela Florence Nicolson
• This Month The Almonds Bloom At Kandahar by Adela Florence Nicolson
• There Is No Breeze To Cool The Heat Of Love by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Window Overlooking The Harbour by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Tom Toms by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Temple Dancing Girl by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Teak Forest by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Singer by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The River Of Pearls At Fez Translation by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Rice Was Under Water by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Rice Boat by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Regret Of The Ranee In The Hall Of Peacocks by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Rao Of Ilore by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Plains by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Net Of Memory by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Masters by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Lute Player Of Casa Blanca by Adela Florence Nicolson
• The Lament Of Yasmini The Dancing Girl by Adela Florence Nicolson

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