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 

• The Instructor by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Hyaenas by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Houses by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Heritage by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Greek National Anthem by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Grave of the Hundered Head by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Gods of the Copybook Headings by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Gipsy Trail by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Gift of the Sea by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Galley-Slave by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Floods by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Flight by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The First Chantey by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Fires by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Female of the Species by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Fall of Jock Gillespie by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Fairies’ Siege by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Fabulists by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Explorer by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Explanation by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling

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