urn:lj:scribbld.com:atom1:eigengrau Sarah Blackstone McCabe Sarah Blackstone McCabe 2010-07-25T07:52:56Z urn:lj:scribbld.com:atom1:eigengrau:313 2010-07-25T07:52:56Z 2010-07-25T07:52:56Z <i>It comes oozing<br />out of flowers at night,<br />it comes out of the rain<br />if a snake looks skyward,<br />it comes out of chairs and tables<br />if you don't point at them and say their names.<br />It comes into your mouth while you sleep,<br />pressing in like a washcloth.<br />Beware. Beware.<br /><br />If you meet a cross-eyed person<br />you must plunge into the grass,<br />alongside the chilly ants,<br />fish through the green fingernails<br />and come up with the four-leaf clover<br />or your blood with congeal<br />like cold gravy.<br /><br />If you run across a horseshoe,<br />passerby,<br />stop, take your hands out of your pockets<br />and count the nails<br />as you count your children<br />or your money.<br />Otherwise a sand flea will crawl in your ear<br />and fly into your brain<br />and the only way you'll keep from going mad<br />is to be hit with a hammer every hour.<br /><br />If a hunchback is in the elevator with you<br />don't turn away,<br />immediately touch his hump<br />for his child will be born from his back tomorrow<br />and if he promptly bites the baby's nails off<br />(so it won't become a thief)<br />that child will be holy<br />and you, simple bird that you are,<br />may go on flying.<br /><br />When you knock on wood,<br />and you do,<br />you knock on the Cross<br />and Jesus gives you a fragment of His body<br />and breaks an egg in your toilet,<br />giving up one life<br />for one life.</i><br /><br />-"The Evil Eye", Anne Sexton