The New Savagery

What does the new savagery

require of me? If I pound a nail

into the wall, the wall is my heart.

All that gnawing on my own headbone—

that was the old savagery, a lassitudinous

charade, black leather jacket boom boom

long after the sun had set and all

that was left was for the dancers

to put their clothes back on.

The mind twists its silver wire.

A tiny mechanical bird is made to sing.

I will write another long last letter

about what I had for lunch, what had me

and you will understand my feelings,

how they only want to feel yours

and if the duty of my dejections

takes me into the sky, no one

must follow me. Not mother

made of balsa wood, not father,

the plinth. Even you, my love,

must not get covered with that ash.

Why am I so afraid of nothingness?

My soul is a baby wolf.