Even Now

1

Begin this year in glory

and hear what the young father,

hoarse and red,

whispers to his first-born:

“Leave and dread.”

5

It’s fine for Dad to hit me

because Dad likes to

with his hand of hard wood.

If I was big and fat,

I’d do it too, if I could,

to a kid

who loves his dad as much as I do.

12

“If you get married, you’ll hit rock bottom,”

my mother said,

and I felt it at once, that layer of rock,

under the soles of my seven-league boots.

20

He slammed the door.

Never going back.

Not if she put him on a throne.

But by the time he crossed the tracks

he was tired and his feet were sore.

He thought, “No-one’s made of stone.”

22

— Just go away.

To your mother or something.

— There is no or something.

— To your mother then.

— She’s dead.

— Oh, poor thing. A long time now?

— Since before I was born.

24

A she-ape, but bald,

that’s what I call her.

It’s not exactly flattering,

but what can I do,

it happens to be true,

especially at three in the morning.

31

“You alone can help me,” she said.

“Help me. Make me forget him.”

That night, when she moaned,

I thought of him in that far land

and she heard it and turned to stone.

74

They carried off the victim.

They took the pimp into custody.

Then the mounted policeman

gave the whore

some more of the third degree.

100

“How can I ever get warm,”

she cried,

“with this ice-cold snake inside of me?”

110

The old man sat on the cow

without a stitch of clothing on.

He’d had it to here with the world by now

but the cow went on and on.