182 You wakened in me a small animal -- a rodent, with all Its fears compressed in a handful of flesh covered with hair -- A creature of night afraid of the daylight, horrified of The dark, bereft of perfection and frightened of itself -- A beast which gnaws out a hole through my chest. It scrapes me inside. I hear its squeak and its patter of paws, feel how it moves, And shrink from each bite -- a shriek in my throat, one thought in my mind -- Of you.







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IRENE CÆSAR
Confined Verse
Collected Poems

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