Claw.
Hard sharp startling dirty primal
Not as funny as klaw;
Serious, to be staring at the business end of a claw:
all kinds of cats:
Tigers, tygers, lions, ocelots,
pussycats in the early morning;
all kinds of desperation:
movie murderers from hell,
spelunkers, miners,
earthquake victims,
rape victims,
pioneers, rivals, catfighters,
cadavers, ghouls, nightmares . . .
— repugnant.
Useful.
Cacophony, stridance, grotesquery
Evil, beauty.
Get your mouth around it:
Savour it; festoon it with spittle;
Use it in a song, in a poem,
Feel the angst it carries
Like a hacked, bloodstained sword
Dragged from battle to battle
From gladiation back to vagina;
Proud basis for heraldry.
Speak to me of claws;
drag them over the chalkboard.
Sing to me of claws
guttural, direct;
Warrior, rapist, gladiator, victim, minstral
fall back on it,
celebrate,
repudiate,
eviscerate,
— claw!
