Adrienne Rich
Tactile Value
from crush and splinter
death in the market
jeering robotic
dry-ice disrupt
to conjure this:
perishing
persistent script
scratched-up smeared
and torn
let hair, nail cuttings
nourish the vine and fig tree
let man, woman
eat, be sheltered
…
Marx the physician laid his ear
on the rhythmic heart
felt the belly
diagnosed the pain
did not precisely write
of lips roaming damp skin
hand plunged in hair bed-laughter
mouth clasping mouth
(what we light with this coalspark
leaving instantly in us
if it continue)