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More poems by Anne SextonAnne Sexton | Print this page.Print | Order a PoetryNotes Analysis of this poem.Analysis | View and Write CommentsComments

For God While Sleeping

Anne Sexton

Sleeping in fever, I am unfair
to know just who you are:
hung up like a pig on exhibit,
the delicate wrists,
the beard drooling blood and vinegar;
hooked to your own weight,
jolting toward death under your nameplate.

Everyone in this crowd needs a bath.
I am dressed in rags.
The mother wears blue.
You grind your teeth
and with each new breath
your jaws gape and your diaper sags.
I am not to blame
for all this. I do not know your name.

Skinny man, you are somebody's fault.
You ride on dark poles --
a wooden bird that a trader built
for some fool who felt
that he could make the flight. Now you roll
in your sleep, seasick
on your own breathing, poor old convict.


Submitted by Venus

Added: 16 Jun 2002 | Last Read: 6 Jul 2008 2:10 AM | Viewed: 7687 times

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URL: http://plagiarist.com/poetry/4785/ | Viewed on 6 July 2008.
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