Живи или умри

The surgeons shook their heads.
They really didn't know —
Would the cripple inside of me
be a cripple that would show?

— from Cripples and Other Stories, October 1965

All this is death.
In the mind there is a thin alley called death
and I move through it as
through water.
My body is useless.
It lies, curled like a dog on the carpet.
It has given up.

– from For The Year Of The Insane, August 1963

Breathe!
And you'll know . . .
an ant in a pot of chocolate,
it boils
and surrounds you.
There is no news in fear
but in the end it's fear
that drowns you.

— from Imitations of Drowning, September 1962