Drywater Summary

"Drywater" opens with a poem that begins by talking about religion, summoning images of violence and money, mechanical minds and repressed sexuality. He talks about polishing knives and collecting coins, and the cloth, as in the phrase, "man of the cloth" used to describe a priest, and a fondness for touching skin, which would be off limits to a Catholic priest, monk or nun. In the next stanza, he references a hangman's noose, and suggests that it is one of his friends that the hangman is after, even while nature roots for them, as if the poetry is their crime. His final stanza tells about "infants in a ballroom," family and friends around a feast, laughing guiltily and looking for a foe to fight.

The second poem in the section talks about someone hiding in fear, children called in from their play, and...