#350

Another piece from Book VII:
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Dream Song 350

By John Berryman

All the girls, with their vivacious littles,
visited him in dream: he was interested in their tops & bottoms
& even in their middles,
for years Henry had been getting away with murder,
the Sheriff mused.  There'll have to be an order
specifically to stop climbing trees,

& other people's wives: we'll cut off his telephone,
stroke one, and hasten his senility,
stroke two: encourage his virtues, if he has one:
ask him upstairs more frequently for tea,
stroke four, put him on the wagon, Death,
no drinks: that ought to cure him.

The progress of age helped him, to be not good but better:
he restricted his passes to passes made by letters
he drank less.
Mlle Choinais noted a definite though small improvement in Henry:
as they passed forth across the northern sea,
a degree of gentleness.