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# Flagelliform #21: Exile (“To be sure, hot water kills a man, But cold water too kills a man.”) by Shane Book
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/flagelliform-21-exile-to-be-sure-hot-water-kills-a-man-but-cold-water-too-kills-a-man-by-shane-book/
- Published: 2013-05-31T14:10:28.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:35:12.000Z
- Description: Our poetry editor, Joe Pan, has selected a poem by Shane Book for his eighth in a monthly series that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.
- Author: Shane Book
- Tags: Poetry, Hyperallergic Poetry, Joe Pan, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:59 (2012, 2013, part 2)

*Our poetry editor,* [*Joe Pan*](http://joepan.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com)*, has selected a poem by Shane Book for his eighth in a* [*monthly series*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/hyperallergic-poetry/) *that brings original poetry to the screens of Hyperallergic readers.*

\* \* \*

![The Great Gallery, in Horseshoe Canyon, Utah, contains rock art that may be 8,000 years old. (via flickr.com/snowpeak)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2013/05/5499355011_2f8629d00d_z.jpg)

The Great Gallery, in Horseshoe Canyon, Utah. (via flickr.com/snowpeak)

Mama said for safety we wander.

I remember different lands.

One where soldiers showed me  
where all’s future war,  
war signs tow and end,  
where shined higher. That’s the word: knack.  
In the lands we traveled  
they give me ‘war knack,’  
a dunk leer to target the target,  
an inner spring sword motor.

One land I learned to track without phone.  
Put a notch in a lion.  
I learned *serum full a fool that’s larger*,  
how to wield bladed  
phrases, bang  
the proverb stick.

Higher’s abhorred words weirdly inured  
me, save me from getting bashed, an “um”  
so shimmer designed dense  
could brain the louchest tête.

Another place the General show me  
wires for leering, den rug nerve potions,  
ant-ish spy gels, making the phones  
workin the inner spring and valance sway.

And once I learned… woe the whir groom-white skinned  
lion.

: Tell me about it, Trawler.

All this before they came to call me

Bone Breaking Lion Son of the Buffalo Cats on the Shoulder

I just a kid.