There are men who struggle for a day
and they are good.
There are men who struggle for a year
and they are better.
There are men who struggle many years,
and they are better still.
But there are those who struggle all their lives:
These are the indispensable ones.
Bertolt Brecht
I dream of snakes, of sea snakes,
of a certain sea of snakes I dream of-
Long, transparent, and in their bellies they carry
whatever they can snatch to love.
Oh, I kill her and a greater one appears,
oh, with much more hell in digestion.
I don't fit in her mouth. She tries to swallow me
but she chokes on a clover of my temple.
I think she's crazy. I give her
a dove to chew and I poison her of my well
Oh, I kill her and a greater one appears,
oh, with much more hell in digestion.
This one, at last, devours me. And meanwhile I travel
through her esophagus, I go thinking on what will come.
But she destroys herself when I get into her stomach
and I present a truth with a verse.
Oh, I kill her and a greater one appears,
oh, with much more hell in digestion.