Barbed Wire

　　by Ralph Burns

　　Two or more strands twisted together，

　　Oxides and baser salts， admixture

　　Of carbon， metal of lash and scourge，

　　Strung like a virus， barbed intervals，

　　Stapled by hand to bois d'arc poles，

　　Woven by machine， "devil's rope"

　　Of vast interior plains，

　　Of meadows bruised by their own

　　Amplitude， barbed wire of a thousand

　　Different kinds， undulating loops，

　　Half round and square——Reynold's Web，

　　Preston's Braid， Meriwether's Cold

　　Weather Wire， Shellaberger's Long Zigzag，

　　Walking Wire， Curtis's Ladder， Visible Lace，

　　Arch and Leaf， Descending Beads， Staple Barb，

　　Open Diamond Point， Sproul's Twins，

　　Elsey's Ribbon， Brink's Buckle， Ellwood's Star，

　　Flute and Rib， Spool and Spurs， Joined Saucers，

　　Tie through Eye， Body Grip，

　　Blake's Knee Grip， Underwood's Tack——

　　Unloved， unloving; that to name these

　　Does no political good， but as precision

　　Is polemical， against vague statement

　　And circular evasion， as the sharp angle of sun

　　And crossed wires together body forth a spark，

　　It is some kind——cold， unmusical， utterly itself，

　　Keeping cattle in， or the enemies of sheep

　　Out.