THE BACKWARD HISS
Whenever I and he
saw it was hurt hurt
badly as a child and he
Saw it whenever he was near / Whenever I was hurt and
bleeding hurt
Badly enough to bleed and he
Was near and hadn't hurt me
Himself and sometimes even then you hit somebody
you're not supposed to hit and after
the first thing you ask yourself
is did you hit too hard
Whenever I was hurt and he
saw it except for when
I fell from the weeping willow cracked my ribs
but I / Wasn't where he could see it bleeding then
He made he bent
over me made a sound an indrawn
like a backward / Hiss as he bent
over me and inspected / The wound the sound
a snake makes but
mixed with the sound a snake would make
Who loves the rat between his teeth