Sunday Poem

Poem Ending With a Sentence by Heath Ledger
.

Each grinding flattened American vowel smashed to

centerlessness, his glee that whatever long ago mutilated his

mouth, he has mastered to mutilate

you: the Joker's voice, so unlike
the bruised, withheld, wounded voice of Ennis Del Mar.

Once I have the voice

that's
the line

and at

the end
of the line

is a hook

and attached
to that

is the soul.

by Frank Bidart
from Metaphysical Dog
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC