“With a tongue like a razor he will kiss
the mother, the child,
and we three will color the stars black
in memory of his mother
who kept him chained to the food tree
or turned him on and off like a water faucet
and made women through all these hazy years
the enemy with a heart of lies.”

"The Wifebeater"
The Book of Folly (1972)

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Anne Sexton 120
poet from the United States 1928–1974

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