Before we drained out one another's forceWith lies, self-denial, unspoken regretAnd the sick eyes that blame; before the divorceAnd the treachery.

Before we drained out one another's force
With lies, self-denial, unspoken regret
And the sick eyes that blame; before the divorce
And the treachery.

You still whispered you would not die.Yet in the nights I heard you cryLike a whipped child. . . .

I haven't read one book about
A book or memorized one plot,
Or found a mind I did not doubt,
I learned one date. And then forgot.
And one by one the solid scholars
Get the degrees, the jobs, the dollars.

Of all things, only we
have power to choose that we should die;
nothing else is free
in this world to refuse it.

Sweet beast, I have gone prowling,
a proud rejected man
who lived along the edges
catch as catch can;
in darkness and in hedges
I sang my sour tone
and all my love was howling
conspicuously alone.