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 

• Slant by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Poem For People That Are Understandably Too Busy To Read Poetry by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Named by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Landscape At The End Of The Century by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• I Come Home Wanting To Touch Everyone by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Essay On The Personal by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Biography In The First Person by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• At The Smithville Methodist Church by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• Allegory Of The Cave by Stephen Dunn by Stephen Dunn
• The White Peacock by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Quality of Courage by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Hemp by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The General Public by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Fiddling Wood by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The City Revisited by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• The Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• Talk by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét
• Road and Hills by Stephen Vincent Benet by Stephen Vincent Benét

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Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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