blackbirdonline journalFall 2009  Vol. 8  No. 2
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GERALD STERN

I

                              XXXI
                              But he was angry—that wasn’t even the question
                              and there were words enough; and let’s agree,
                              I. barked in one of his New York City voices,
                              that you are alone when you take off your clothes
                              and slip into the water, and it’s too late to
                              learn another language, and what they should have
                              done is breathe quietly in the small space
                              below the shoulder to the right of the neck,
                              and maybe the Hummer can lie down with the Hoover
                              and birds of a feather, and let’s just see who gets
                              to live longer, and so much for straw.

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