Anne Sexton Goes to the Circus, or, Finding form (finding function)

I used to describe it this way;

that if you used form it was like letting a lot of

wild animals out into the arena, but enclosing them in a cage,

and you could let some extraordinary animals out if you had the right cage,

and that cage would be form.

--Anne Sexton, in a 1965 interview with Patricia Marx

And tonight our skins, our bones,

that have survived our fathers,

will meet, delicate in the hold,

fastened together in an intricate

lock. Then one of us will shout,

"My need is more desperate!" and

I will eat you slowly with kisses

even though the killer in you

has gotten out.

--excerpt, "Loving the Killer"