Roach, foulest of creatures, <br />who attacks with yellow teeth <br />and an army of cousins big as shoes, <br />you are lumps of coal that are mechanized <br />and when I turn on the light you scuttle <br />into the corners and there is this hiss upon the land. <br />Yet I know you are only the common angel <br />turned into, by way of enchantment, the ugliest. <br />Your uncle was made into an apple. <br />Your aunt was made into a Siamese cat, <br />all the rest were made into butterflies <br />but because you lied to God outrightly- <br />told him that all things on earth were in order- <br />He turned his wrath upon you and said, <br />I will make you the most loathsome, <br />I will make you into God's lie, <br />and never will a little girl fondle you <br />or hold your dark wings cupped in her palm. <br /> <br />But that was not true. Once in New Orleans <br />with a group of students a roach fled across <br />the floor and I shrieked and she picked it up <br />in her hands and held it from my fear for one hour. <br />And held it like a diamond ring that should not escape. <br />These days even the devil is getting overturned <br />and held up to the light like a glass of water.<br /><br />Anne Sexton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cockroach/
