'the withness of the body' --Whitehead <br /> <br />The heavy bear who goes with me, <br />A manifold honey to smear his face, <br />Clumsy and lumbering here and there, <br />The central ton of every place, <br />The hungry beating brutish one <br />In love with candy, anger, and sleep, <br />Crazy factotum, dishevelling all, <br />Climbs the building, kicks the football, <br />Boxes his brother in the hate-ridden city. <br /> <br />Breathing at my side, that heavy animal, <br />That heavy bear who sleeps with me, <br />Howls in his sleep for a world of sugar, <br />A sweetness intimate as the water's clasp, <br />Howls in his sleep because the tight-rope <br />Trembles and shows the darkness beneath. <br />--The strutting show-off is terrified, <br />Dressed in his dress-suit, bulging his pants, <br />Trembles to think that his quivering meat <br />Must finally wince to nothing at all. <br /> <br />That inescapable animal walks with me, <br />Has followed me since the black womb held, <br />Moves where I move, distorting my gesture, <br />A caricature, a swollen shadow, <br />A stupid clown of the spirit's motive, <br />Perplexes and affronts with his own darkness, <br />The secret life of belly and bone, <br />Opaque, too near, my private, yet unknown, <br />Stretches to embrace the very dear <br />With whom I would walk without him near, <br />Touches her grossly, although a word <br />Would bare my heart and make me clear, <br />Stumbles, flounders, and strives to be fed <br />Dragging me with him in his mouthing care, <br />Amid the hundred million of his kind, <br />the scrimmage of appetite everywhere.<br /><br />Delmore Schwartz<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-heavy-bear-who-goes-with-me/
