Playing with an Archetype
While they gambled for their clothes It was amusing.
Soon he lost every last stitch.
When they gambled for body privileges It was exciting Even when she won his last hair, to do as she liked with.
Seeing the possible gains And thinking: Nothing more to lose He gambled on.
He hadn't reckoned Earth, Sun, Moon and Stars were still to be lost They went in one throw.
She put them into her bag.
The Past and the Future — one throw.
All attendant and invisible worlds One throw.
She put them into her bag.
So he hung there, echoless, in nothing, The simple cry of his loss Nailed where the moment he occupied Crossed the single place he occupied.
And now, with a finalising smile She won his cry Louder and louder he unravelled it for her And worse and tearing worse, and on and on Endlessly into her bag.
Ted Hughes
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