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 

• Resolution And Independence by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Repentance by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Remembrance Of by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Power Of Music by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Picture of Daniel in the Lion’s Den at Hamilton Palace by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Personal Talk by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• On The Same Occasion by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• On The Final Submission Of The Tyrolese by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• On A Celebrated Event In Ancient History by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• O’erweening Statesmen Have Full Long Relied by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• O’er The Wide Earth, On Mountain And On Plain by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Ode by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Ode To Lycoris. May 1817 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Ode to Duty by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Ode Composed On A May Morning by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• October, 1803 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• Occasioned By The Battle Of Waterloo February 1816 by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth
• O Nightingale! Thou Surely Art by William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth

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