The Vicious

By Yusef Komunyakaa

Fear threads its song

through the bones.

Syringe, stylus,

or pearled-handled stiletto?

He's fallen in love

with the Spanish garrote;

trailing a blue feather over the beast's belly

on down between his toes.

Nightlong laughter

leaks from under the sheetmetal door.

Blackout

____

He sits under a floodlight

mumbling that a theory of ants

will finally deal with us,

& reading My Lord Rochester

to a golden sky over Johannesburg,

a stray dog beside him, Sirius

licking his combat boots.

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