Author: Anne Sexton

A born salesman, My father made all his dough By selling wool to Fieldcrest, Woolrich and Faribo. A born talker, […]

Darkness As black as your eyelid, Poketricks of stars, The yellow mouth, The smell of a stranger, Dawn coming up, […]

a prayer O Mary, fragile mother, Hear me, hear me now Although I do not know your words. The black […]

We are America. We are the coffin fillers. We are the grocers of death. We pack them in crates like […]

Slim inquirer, while the old fathers sleep You are reworking their soil, you have A grocery store there down under […]

It comes oozing Out of flowers at night, It comes out of the rain If a snake looks skyward, It […]

Who is he? A railroad track toward hell? Breaking like a stick of furniture? The hope that suddenly overflows the […]

Tommy is three and when he’s bad His mother dances with him. She puts on the record, “Red Roses for […]

In the thin classroom, where your face Was noble and your words were all things, I find this boily creature […]

Anger, As black as a hook, Overtakes me. Each day, Each Nazi Took, at 8:00 A. M., a baby And […]

Someone lives in a cave Eating his toes, I know that much. Someone little lives under a bush Pressing an […]

In the dream The swastika is neon And flashes like a strobe light Into my eyes, all colors, All vibrations […]

So it has come to this Insomnia at 3:15 A. M., The clock tolling its engine Like a frog following […]

“Young girls in old Arabia were often buried alive next To their fathers, apparently as sacrifice to the goddesses Of […]

There they are Drooping over the breakfast plates, Angel-like, Folding in their sad wing, Animal sad, And only the night […]

I am not lazy. I am on the amphetamine of the soul. I am, each day, Typing out the God […]

Sleepmonger, Deathmonger, With capsules in my palms each night, Eight at a time from sweet pharmaceutical bottles I make arrangements […]

Loving me with my shows off Means loving my long brown legs, Sweet dears, as good as spoons; And my […]

I knew you forever and you were always old, Soft white lady of my heart. Surely you would scold Me […]

Today the circus poster Is scabbing off the concrete wall And the children have forgotten If they knew at all. […]