Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GHAZALS: 23 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: I IMAGINED HER DEAD, KILLED BY SOME LOCAL MANIAC WHO
Last Line: SACK IN MY TEETH. AT THE DUMP I PAUSE TO SNARL AT A RAT.
Subject(s): ANGER; DRINKS & DRINKING; RELATIONSHIPS; WINE;

I imagined her dead, killed by some local maniac who
crept upon the house with snowmobile at low throttle.

Alcohol that lets me play out hates and loves and fights;
in each bottle is a woman, the betrayer and the slain.

I insist on a one-to-one relationship with nature.
If Thursday I'm a frog it will have to be my business.

You are well. You grow taller. Friends think I've bought you
stilts but it is I shrinking, up past my knees in marl.

She said take out the garbage. I trot through a field with the
sack in my teeth. At the dump I pause to snarl at a rat.



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