Drawing by Judith Wolfe
Isha Wagner

Poem


      I AM 'THE SCREAM"

      I live, despite myself
      Because I am not inert
      Because I inhale and exhale
      Because I must
      In spite of knowing
      I shall cease to be

      Shall cease from watching
      The fat squashy sparrows
      Pecking the autumn ground their feathers
      Not in disarray

      Shall cease from feeling absurd
      In a cabbage strewn world

      Shall cease from finding knowledge
      In its endless stream
      That's always and ever
      Too hard to bear

      Shall cease from love's emanations

      And cease from kissing your thin lips
      That seek my lipsticked mouth
      And enter into the mist
      Where time holds no sway -
      ­Only the echo of my scream.

      (Eduard Munch's Stolen Painting "The Scream)


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