Kef 21

 

First there was the earth in my mouth. It was there like a running stream, the July fever sweating the delirium of August, and the green buckling under the sun. The taste of sick dust ran in the currents of saliva which I heaved up and tried to picture when all the people would curse their own stinking guts and die. No. I am not wishing that everyone should die. Nor am I wishing that everyone should be still. Only I am squeezing out the steam in me.

 

Henry Dumas (USA, 1934-1968)

 

Henry Dumas, “Kef 21” from The Selected Poetry of Henry Dumas, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press. Copyright © 1968-2010 by Loretta Dumas and Eugene B. Redmond. Used by permission of the Hentry Dumas Estate, Eugene B. Redmond, Executor.

Source: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/53477

 

Image cover: a detail of an exhibition at Macao, Milan, during Milan Design Week 2016 (ph. Diana Marrone)

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