I don't know one damned butterfly from another <br />my ignorance of the stars is formidable, <br />also of dogs & ferns <br />except that around my house one destroys the other <br />When I reckon up my real ignorance, pal, <br />I mumble "many returns"— <br /> <br />next time it will be nature & Thoreau <br />this time is Baudelaire if one had the skill <br />and even those problems O <br />At the mysterious urging of the body or Poe <br />reeled I with chance, insubordinate & a killer <br />O formal & elaborate I choose you <br /> <br />but I love too the spare, the hit-or-miss, <br />the mad, I sometimes can't always tell them apart <br />As we fall apart, will you let me hear? <br />That would be good, that would be halfway to bliss <br />You said will you answer back? I cross my heart <br />& hope to die but not this year.<br /><br />John Berryman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dream-song-265-i-don-t-know-one-damned-butterfly/
