THE STRANGE WOMAN WITH THE HONEYCOMB LIPS*
 
At the nose of a dog and under her knees 
there hung a little bell made all of glass. 

Her lips and hips were heaped together 
and the midden steamed with its own itch. 

She sat at her door between two stools 
while a drowning boy clutched at her straws, 

bawling hard words to scatter her bones: 
but fair and softly had gone too far. 

She lifted her elbow high and dry 
and a manikin leapt within her bag, 

crying cold pudding to settle his love; 
but she gave him the breast that snapped his 
         liver. 

And while she laughed herself half naked 
he clawed the wink out of her eye: 

and while a snake slip into her hand 
a key was freezing against his leg. 

Then truth came swiftly between wind and water 
and the end and the beginning were the first day. 
  
  

________________________
* After Proverbs v.

                     (1940)