“YOU slut,” he flung at her.It was more than a hundred timesHe had thrown it into her faceAnd by this time it meant nothing to her.She said to herself upstairs…

LET the crows go by hawking their caw and caw.They have been swimming in midnights of coal mines somewhere.Let ’em hawk their caw and caw. Let the woodpecker drum and…

You come along… tearing your shirt… yelling about Jesus.     Where do you get that stuff?     What do you know about Jesus?Jesus had a way of talking soft and outside of…

You never come back.I say good-by when I see you going in the doors,The hopeless open doors that call and waitAnd take you then for–how many cents a day?How many…

The dago shovelman sits by the railroad trackEating a noon meal of bread and bologna.     A train whirls by, and men and women at tables     Alive with red roses and…

COOL your heels on the rail of an observation car.Let the engineer open her up for ninety miles an hour.Take in the prairie right and left, rolling land and new…

I DON’T blame the kettle drums-they are hungry.And the snare drums-I know what they want-they are empty too.And the harring booming bass drums-they are hungriest of all..    .    .The howling spears of…

Let us be honest; the lady was not a harlot until she     married a corporation lawyer who picked her from     a Ziegfeld chorus.Before then she never took anybody’s money and…

THE BOY Alexander understands his father to be a famous lawyer.The leather law books of Alexander’s father fill a room like hay in a barn.Alexander has asked his father to…

(For Paula)THE GRIP of the ice is gone now.The silvers chase purple.The purples tag silver.  They let out their runnersHere where summer says to the lilies:  “Wish and be wistful,Circle this wind-hunted,…