Saturday, July 17, 2021

DAVID YOUNG ~

 



Occupational Hazards




      Butcher

If I want to go to pieces

I can do that. When I try

to pull myself together

I get sausage.



      Bakers

Can't be choosers. Rising

from a white bed, from dreams

of kings, bright cities, buttocks,

to see the moon by daylight.



      Tailor

It's not the way the needle

drags the poor thread around.

It's sewing the monster together,

my misshapen son.



      Gravediggers

To be the baker's dark opposite,

to dig the anti-cake, to stow

the sinking loaves in the unoven —

then to be dancing on the job!



      Woodcutter

Deep in my hands

as far as I can go

the fallen trees

keep ringing.



_________________

David Young

The Names of a Hare in English

Pittsburgh 1979