Laments from a Skyscraper, 1962

I knew what the back burner was,
I wasn't the idiot you thought me to be,

or the patron,
or the patron saint,

so I turned it on,
and watched the ugly blue light,
and smelled it to make sure,

then I shut my door,
the way they did in 1990,
when it scared me,
the door,
and the heat,
and what was behind it,

and I let the gas wind up and down the walls,
because I could,

so many of us were willing to let it all go,
I just didn't want to go with it---