The Working World’s Bloody Flux

What do you do if you meet a witch?
Move! from the scenery of belief in her
by air, by car, by foot, by back-
roads if you must, but move! Leave!
And if you can’t or think you can’t,
Oh build a fort of reason in her country,
and walk the battlements of stone,
of brick, of mud, of sticks, of thorn-
bush if you lack, and say the charm:
2 plus 2 is four, a truth so true
it laughs, “Tautology!, Tautology!’ before
the numbers change in speech and come
in screams, in shouts, in lalling, or
in curses if you hurt. 2 plus 2
is Noah’s Ark, with every couple in it
coupled into one and crying differently
to make a third, a fourth, a fifth, a litter
Dove, find us a land of peace and ease.
Come back with a bomb or burning bough
proof in your claws that love or death,
in giving us the business, gives us all.