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A SMALL SLAUGHTER

Day breaks without thanks or caution

past a night without satisfaction or pain.

My words are blind children I have armed

against the casual insolence of morning

without you

I am scarred and marketed

like a streetcorner in Harlem

a woman

whose face in the tiles

your feet have not yet regarded

I am the stream

past which you will never step

the woman you can not deal with

I am the mouth

of your scorn.