"Alfonso Stands Answerable."
My people, you were really something fucking fine
on the morning of the first arrests:
our men, once frightened, bound to their beds,
now stand up like human masts--
deafness passes through us like a police whistle.
Here then I
testify:
each of us
comes home, shouts at a wall, at a stove, a refrigerator,
at himself.
Forgive me, I
wasn't honest with you,
life--
to you I stand answerable.
I ran etcetera with my legs and my hands etcetera
I run down Vasenka Street etcetera--
Whoever listens:
thank you for the feather on my tongue,
thank you for our argument that ends, thank you for deafness,
Lord, such fire
from a match you never lit.