英語(yǔ)詩(shī)歌大全-The Ten Commandments

字號(hào):

But I could be covetous1. I could be a thief.
     Could want and work for. Could wire and
     Deceive. I thought to fool the moon into
     A doubt. I did some doubting. Lord,
     Forgive me. In New Orleans that winter,
     I waited for a woman to find me shirtless
     On her back porch. Why? She meant it
     Rhetorically and hit me with open hands.
     How many times can a woman say why
     With her hands in the moonlight? I counted
     Ten like light breaking hard on my head,
     Ten rhetorical whys and half a moon. Half-
     Nude, I let her light into me. I could be last
     On a list of lovers Joe Adams would see,
     And first to find his wife slapping the spit
     Out of me. I could be sick and sullen2. I could
     Sulk and sigh. I could be a novel character
     By E. Lynn Harris, but even he'd allow me
     Some dignity. He loved black people too
     Much to write about a wife whipping her rival
     On a night people in Louisiana call cold.
     He'd have Joe Adams run out back and pull
     Her off of me. He wouldn't think I deserved it.