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Anne Sexton - Mother and Daughter
Work rating: Medium

Linda, you are leaving 
your old body now, 
It lies flat, an old butterfly, 
all arm, all leg, all wing, 
loose as an old dress. 
I reach out toward it but 
my fingers turn to cankers 
and I am motherwarm and used, 
just as your childhood is used. 
Question you about this 
and you hold up pearls. 
Question you about this 
and you pass by armies. 
Question you about this — 
you with your big clock going, 
its hands wider than jackstraws — 
and you`ll sew up a continent. 
Now that you are eighteen 
I give you my booty, my spoils, 
my Mother & Co. and my ailments. 
Question you about this 
and you`ll not know the answer — 
the muzzle at the oxygen, 
the tubes, the pathways, 
the war and the war`s vomit. 
Keep on, keep on, keep on, 
carrying keepsakes to the boys, 
carrying powders to the boys, 
carrying, my Linda, blood to 
the bloodletter. 
Linda, you are leaving 
your old body now. 
You`ve picked my pocket clean 
and you`ve racked up all my 
poker chips and left me empty 
and, as the river between us 
narrows, you do calisthenics, 
that womanly leggy semaphore. 
Question you about this 
and you will sew me a shroud 
and hold up Monday`s broiler 
and thumb out the chicken gut. 
Question you about this 
and you will see my death 
drooling at these gray lips 
while you, my burglar, will eat 
fruit and pass the time of day.
Source
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