to the courtroom floor by his ear.
In the ward kitchen I help with piss samples.
A teacher shouts 'Christ man what an ignominy
all my teeth have to come out before the op'
Another man dies and is green-curtained
immediately, like a tree taken away by foresters,

very shocking, as if a heap of delicate things
had been knocked out of my hands, though I remember
of course that life is a fire which quickly burns out
and death, as we know, is ever-present, in many masks,
sometimes a bitter current of air, or a shout
of outrage, a dish laid before unknown gods.

Wherever we walk, we seem to leave injuries on the earth.
I must leave this place forever.
I think to myself, I must leave this town forever,
Tescoville, DIYsburg, there is no future here
for a young man with ambition and besides
my emotions have gone right out of control

it must be the medication. I love these men in death's
waiting room with desperate eyes.
Sometimes I hold their pulse, and when I listen
to that intimate drumming I feel I'm standing
on the doorstep of a huge and faraway continent
like Africa, or Eternity, which someday I shall visit.