back to John Berryman

“Sonnet 104” by John Berryman 🇺🇸 (25 Oct 1914 – 7 Jan 1972)
A spot of poontang on a five-foot piece,
Diminutive, but room enough … like clay
To finger eager on some torrid day …
Who’d throw her black hair back, and hang, and tease.
Never, not once in all one’s horny lease
To’have had a demi-lay, a pretty, gay,
Snug, slim and supple-breasted girl for play …
She bats her big, warm eyes, and slides like grease.
And cuff her silly-hot again, mouth hot
And wet her small round writhing—but this screams
Suddenly awake, unreal as alkahest,
My god, this isn’t what I want!—You tot
The harrow-days you hold me to, black dreams,
The dirty water to get off my chest.