crucible

i’m all
jangling metal
and superstition,

all creaky elbows
and tin-can knees,

my two left
leaden feet,

my aluminum foil
fist

of prejudice,

the pure unflinching
strength
of my body.



i’m all
unbending ire
and fanaticism,

the copper tang of my
jaundiced eye,

the stranglehold of my
strange
devotion,

the intractable steel
of my heels
in the dirt.

the sheer implacable
iron
of my spleen.