Anne Sexton - Cockroach lyrics

Roach, foulest of creatures, who attacks with yellow teeth and an army of cousins big as shoes, you are lumps of coal that are mechanized and when I turn on the light you scuttle into the corners and there is this hiss upon the land. Yet I know you are only the common angel turned into, by way of enchantment, the ugliest. Your uncle was made into an apple. Your aunt was made into a Siamese cat, all the rest were made into bu*terflies but because you lied to God outrightly- told him that all things on earth were in order- He turned his wrath upon you and said, I will make you the most loathsome, I will make you into God's lie, and never will a little girl fondle you or hold your dark wings cupped in her palm. But that was not true. Once in New Orleans with a group of students a roach fled across the floor and I shrieked and she picked it up in her hands and held it from my fear for one hour. And held it like a diamond ring that should not escape. These days even the devil is getting overturned and held up to the light like a gla** of water.