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By Leonard Cochran

audioear pictureHear the author read this poem (in RealAudio)

Battling cascading
steam, my ancient

neighbor would face
his fogged mirror,

cutthroat razor
mowing down, up,

piratical blade
making every

stroke a page torn
from a life story

told the hard way,
because "Someone,

by God, has to keep
the old skills alive."

Leonard Cochran is a Dominican priest now retired from the English faculty of Providence College.
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