HAROLD PINTER - “I shall tear off my Terrible Cap”

I in my straight jacket swung in the sun,
In a hostile pause in a no man’s time.
The spring his green anchor had flung.
Around me only the walking brains,
And the plack of their onelegged dreams
As I hung.

I tell them this—
Only the deaf can hear and the blind understand
The miles I gabble.
Through these my dances of dunce and devil,
It’s only the dumb can speak through the rubble.
Time shall drop his spit in my cup,
With this vicious cut he shall close my trap
And gob me up in a drunkard’s lap.
All spirits shall haunt me and all devils drink me;
O despite their dark drugs and the digs that they rib me,
I’ll tear off my terrible cap.