Theme and Variations

How do you get to scream the world is good
and we have only to lose ourselves in its goodness?
Ask me in return and together we'll question
every man, woman and child we meet,
and won't it be the Lord's Prayer
if we all get up on our legs and shout
out the question rhythmically
because it is a passion
to know.

You sit drinking milk
knowing your faults,
milk drinking
your last gesture
to childhood.

Look at my smooth face
cover my failings.
I smile, I add
to the picture of health.

You strike me
and I'll strike you
and when we are through
beating each other
nearly dead, about to die,
we will be close
to an understanding of ourselves
as wanting to die
in the quickest, most efficient way
without sacrificing pleasure
or the principle of life.
     

There's love in me like an egg hardened.
What do you think would have emerged
if it had been kept warm
and allowed to hatch?

I am an affectionate man,
I love the differences
that compose me.