Instructions for Killing the Jackal

File the teeth first—no, first shoot

the trank.  Then teeth, nails, testes.

Feed yourself Valium if faint-of-heart.

(Jackals may be faint-of-heart.)

This is necessary to kill the jackal,

but keep the man.

Embroider pillows, learn The Inferno,

learn Italian, then The Inferno in Italian,

and for his return, recite passages

he'll not understand, though he's been there

and returned to you more man, less jackal.

Say, I'll take you furless and toothless,

take your gums and the nicks from the razor,

let you bleed on me if you return.

Purple-eyed and calloused,

rub your calluses against mine;

we could sand each other

until we got to the good parts.