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 

• When ‘Omer Smote ‘Is Bloomin’ Lyre by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• When Earth’s Last Picture Is Painted by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• What the People Said by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• What Happened by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Ulster by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Two Months by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Two Kopjes by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Troopin’ by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Tommy by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• Tin Fish by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Young British Soldier by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Wishing-Caps by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Winners by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Widow at Windsor by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Truce of the Bear by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Thousandth Man by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Story of Uriah by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Story of Ung by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Sons of Martha by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Songs of the Lathes by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling

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