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Marred

Text of Poem

This headache of a morning
is split wide open with birdsong,
such yipping and piping
and shrill whistling from the lawn, 
the cardinal gloats in the elm’s top
and drives his sharp treble
like a nail into my eardrums.
And the sun bursts unannounced
into my bedroom, squats on the floor
in a yellow uniform and stares
at my eyes until they hurt.
Show me a door I can back out of
in my sullen clothes and come back in
dressed as I should be to delight
my wife’s eyes this summer morning.

First Line
This headache of a morning
Original Pub Location
Original Publication Date
1965
Original Citation
Sparrow Magazine (July 1965) 21.
Republication
Complete Poems
152
Hearst Collections
Word Count
93
Poetic Form
open
Themes