Death Boy

Death Boy
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“that ride home
with our boy”
—Anne Sexton
“Sylvia’s Death”
The Complete Poems
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The death we said—
We both outgrew, the boy
We wanted so badly

The boy we talked of—
So often each time after
Three extra-dry martinis
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The boy we told analysts—
About poems without plots
The boy we drank to

The boy we wanted so badly—
And for so long, the boy of
City roofs & dumb prayers
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The boy we waited for-
Under our hearts, our cupboards
The sleepy drummer boy

The boy in the Boston taxi—
All the way home, sadist
New York fairy boy
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How we wanted him—
To do his job, a necessity
A window in the wall

All the times we wanted—
Knowing we stored him up
Year after years, old suicides
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And then in Devonshire—
When you finally laid down
The death boy

He was our Boss Cupid—
The boy who was inside us
Waiting to be born