Bodies, houses of scars, the places we have been: one day, dear heart, as your mother had been, rather than on the other side of this drawing you are going to be on the other side of a cleansing, cast down by stroke or fall or diabetic coma and left helpless in the hell of my heart; it could happen tomorrow today or next year—twenty centuries from now when you are vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle;1 and what rough beast would you find at the foot of your bed, waiting to give you your due, waiting with two plastic basins of water, one being solely water while the other would have in it a sudarium soon to be sainted by blood lymph and thumbprint and the mark of some tallow soap, formed from the suet of a slaughterhouse. An acid bath. I would have a look like an ax and an unthinkable act already marshaling motives in the back of my mind, harboring a heart, and an angst wrenching away at the bones—and I will feel you I will ache you I will cry you, for when the falling leaf of a false belief is as crushing as an eyelash against the cheek, when your lips are closest to mine, asking for that final favor that release, I can’t say what I would do: my conscience is a sentence. Ghettoes and slums are not the same: if everyone is ethnically alike they are ghettoes, if everyone is just basically poor they are slums; we are a ghetto in a slum, you and I, the Facility suits us, for these low-cost duplexes newly constructed of cardboard and kiddy glue is just another fenced-in slum with its false hopes and doors and walls so thin that you could hammer a nail through the cranium-buttressed wall of the apoplectic next door. Our duplex has one ground-floor apartment where a veteran invalid and his offspring reside and one upstairs apartment where we are, and since you cannot take steps everyday you sometimes plop your packaged mass down onto the bottom step and bracing yourself on the stair and banister above scoot and heave yourself up, whereas upon descending this system is reversed by bracing yourself on the stair and banister below, all the while breathing as though through a straw; it is not only an extraordinary physical feat but a mental one as well, for after two years of this, by the haul and dragging of your enormity, the center lips of these wooden steps have adopted the polished appearance of mahogany,

中文翻译：

---

从鼠年

尸体，伤痕累累的房子，我们去过的地方：亲爱的心，有一天，就像你的母亲一样，而不是在这幅画的另一边，你将在清洗的另一边，被中风击倒或跌倒或糖尿病昏迷，无助地留在我的心底；它可能发生在明天今天或明年——二十个世纪后，当你被摇晃的摇篮烦得做噩梦时；1 你会在床脚发现什么样的野兽，等着给你应得的，等着两个塑料一盆水，一盆是纯水，而另一盆里有一个很快就会被血液淋巴和拇指印以及一些由屠宰场羊脂制成的牛油肥皂标记的圣水。酸浴。我会有一个看起来像一把斧头和一个不可思议的行为，已经在我的脑海里整理了动机，怀着一颗心，一种痛苦在骨头上撕扯着——我会感觉到你我会疼你我会哭你，因为当错误信念的落叶像睫毛贴在脸颊上一样粉碎时，当你的嘴唇最接近我的，要求释放的最后一个恩惠，我不能说我会做什么：我的良心是一个句子。贫民窟和贫民窟不一样：如果每个人在种族上都相似，它们就是贫民窟，如果每个人都基本上是穷人，它们就是贫民窟；我们是贫民窟中的贫民窟，你和我，该设施适合我们，因为这些由纸板和胶水新建的低成本复式公寓只是另一个围栏围起来的贫民窟，它的希望是虚假的，门和墙壁非常薄，你可以用钉子钉穿隔壁中风病房的颅骨壁。我们的复式公寓有一个底层公寓，一个老兵和他的后代居住在楼上，我们在楼上的一个公寓，因为你不能每天都走几步，你有时会把你打包的质量放在最下面的台阶上，在楼梯和栏杆上支撑自己在踏板车上方并抬起自己，而在下降时，这个系统通过将自己支撑在下面的楼梯和栏杆上而颠倒过来，同时呼吸就像通过吸管一样；这不仅是一种非凡的身体壮举，也是一种精神上的壮举，因为两年后，在你巨大的拖拽下，这些木台阶的中央唇部已经变成了桃花心木的抛光外观，因为你不能每天都走几步，你有时会把你打包的东西放到最下面的台阶上，把自己撑在踏板车上面的楼梯和栏杆上，然后把自己撑起来，而在下降时，这个系统会通过把自己撑在下面的楼梯和栏杆上，而颠倒过来，一直在呼吸，好像用吸管一样；这不仅是一种非凡的身体壮举，也是一种精神上的壮举，因为两年后，在你巨大的拖拽下，这些木台阶的中央唇部已经变成了桃花心木的抛光外观，因为你不能每天都走几步，你有时会把你打包的东西放到最下面的台阶上，把自己撑在踏板车上面的楼梯和栏杆上，然后把自己撑起来，而在下降时，这个系统会通过把自己撑在下面的楼梯和栏杆上，而颠倒过来，一直在呼吸，好像用吸管一样；这不仅是一种非凡的身体壮举，也是一种精神上的壮举，因为两年后，在你巨大的拖拽下，这些木台阶的中央唇部已经变成了桃花心木的抛光外观，