Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONNET: 29 by HAYDEN CARRUTH

Poet Analysis

First Line: I WANT TO DO A COMPLAINT NOW. WHICH IS TO SAY
Last Line: leaving a streak on my pants, which is not nice
Subject(s): BODY, HUMAN; MEN;

I want to do a complaint now. Which is to say
simply that a hypertrophied prostate,
whatever women and other such novices may
choose to believe, is quite precisely not
my idea of a @3baba au rhum@1 at the Chez
Paul or a Sunday outing with the laureate
or a grandiluminarious sunset display
over the park, etc. Also it is somewhat
not like strawberry shortcake.
On the contrary
it is that insidious, invidious last drip
which always waits, the inner adversary,
till I'm upzipped, helpless, and heading out, to slip
down my thigh like a seed of dying ice,
leaving a streak on my pants, which is not nice.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org



Home: PoetryExplorer.net