The mad have black roots in their brains around which vessels clot and embrace each other as mating snakes. The roots feed on the brain until the brain is all root -- now the brain is gray and suffocates in its own folds. The brain grows smaller and beats against its cage of bone like a small wet bird. Let us pity the mad we see every day, the bird is dying without air and water and growing smaller, the air is cold, her beak is sharp, the beating shriller. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A WOMAN'S LOVE by JOHN MILTON HAY CHURCH-MUSICK [CHURCH MUSIC] by GEORGE HERBERT A BALLAD OF TREES AND THE MASTER by SIDNEY LANIER RIDDLE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE CHAMPION (SUGGESTED BY A STORY OF JACK LONDON) by BERTON BRALEY THE BUSH-SPARROW by JOHN BURROUGHS |