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Cold Comfort to Doom

No crops to sow. No shocks. No cobs, no corn’s
down floss. No cock’s crow. No storms

to grow. No cool to morn. No blood to spot; no flocks
of cotton bolls to lop. No flocks. No loons,

no motmots, no crows. No brook to ford, no flood
to drown: no ghost woods. No clots

of snow. No cordwood to stow. No moss. No north.
No woods. No fork not to follow: no Frost.

No Wordsworth. No Woolworth’s. No worth
to show. No stockroom’s goods to sort—top-notch,

so-so: no town blocks to loot. No mob. No loss. No door
to lock. No room to mop. No door. No room. No ghost

to spoon. No slow songs, dolor-thrown: no sobs.
No throngs, no boss. No cooks to bog

the broth. No roots. No roost. No owls, no storks,
no coots. No fox. No coop. No slop

to toss. No hot blood to cool, no cold
to school. No cool cloth. No pods’ slow bloom

to moths. No hopscotch, no workbook. No pompoms,
no hotshot jocks, no proms. No rock. No roll. No knoll

to mow. No boom-box to boost, no rooftop croon—no
roofs. No horns to toot. No blow. No stock

to prod, no cows’ long low. No port
for fools, no storm-shook moon: no months

of monsoons. No ghost not grown. No trolls. No gold
not to own. No torts, no pro bono work: no job

lost. No to, no from. No mood control. No too hot
for wool. No too smog for sport. No cogs, no

logs to roll. No foothold lost. No hook, no crook:
no dog. No wolf. No clop of hoofs, no boom

of boots: no door to knock. No clock. No good odds
to blow. No vows—no slow morph to dolls

of drool. No broth to cool. No bowl. No spoon.
No food for gods, for ghosts. No food

for compost. No worms to sod. No woodwork’s
box. No plot to own. No tooth to sow, no sooth

to toll: no torso. No blogs to scroll. No good
book to gloss. No on, no off. No wrong,

no not. No too hot to trot. No cold cock. No who.
No whom. No thorn of moon. No London fog, no horns

on loop. No Boston snow to slog. No stoop. No Oz,
no om, no O2 lost. No no-show good god

to cross. No crown. No thorns. No tock
from womb to tomb. No slow

soft rot. No blood to own. No bomb not good
to go. No shock. No glow. No

blossom blown. No good world now
not flown.