Ginsberg, Allen: The Shrouded Stranger
The Shrouded Stranger (Angol)Bare skin is my wrinkled sack When hot Apollo humps my back When Jack Frost grabs me in these rags I wrap my legs with burlap bags
My flesh is cinder my face is snow I walk the railroad to and fro When city streets are black and dead The railroad embankment is my bed
I sup my soup from old tin cans And take my sweets from little hands In Tiger Alley near the jail I steal away from the garbage pail
In darkest night where none can see Down in the bowels of the factory I sneak barefoot upon stone Come and hear the old man groan
I hide and wait like a naked child Under the bridge my heart goes wild I scream at a fire on the river bank I give my body to an old gas tank
I dream that I have burning hair Boiled arms that claw the air The torso of an iron king And on my back a broken wing
Who'll go out whoring into the night On the eyeless road in the skinny moonlight Maid or dowd or athlete proud May wanton with me in the shroud
Who'll come lay down in the dark with me Belly to belly and knee to knee Who'll look into my hooded eye Who'll lay down under my darkened thigh?
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