Innocence and Experience

I laid myself down as a woman And woke as a child. Sleep buried me up to my chin, But my brain cut wild. Sudden summer lay sticky as tar Under bare white feet. Stale, soot-spotted heapings of winter Shrank in the street. Black headlines, infolded like napkins, Crashed like grenades As war beat its way porch by porch Up New Haven's façades. Europe: a brown hive of noises, Hitler inside. On the sunny shelf by the stairs My tadpoles died. Big boys had already decided Who'd lose and who'd score, Singing one potato, two potato, Three potato, four. Singing sticks and stones May break my bones (but names hurt more). Singing step on a crack Break your mother's back (her platinum-ringed finger). Singing who got up your mother When your daddy wasn't there? Singing allee allee in free! You're Dead, you're dead, wherever you are!