From Poems Seven: "On Not Working and Then Working On Working and Then Not Working"
There used to be boring afternoons, all quiet. The sun refused to set or, no, the earth refused to move so that the sun could set, yes.
Then time collapsed into itself. Days ran through their cycles as machines, fast. I said to myself hold on to yourself: you could get spun off the earth, screaming.
I have to concentrate on three things after work or during unemployment. They are: birth, love, and death, or else the horrors, rape, and suicide,
so that those loving couples on the streets whispering their secrets of their own sweet time should have it, and that bad dreams, ideas, and bombers should not kill them.
courtesy of Seven Stories Press from Poems Seven by Alan Dugan copyright 2001
