Frank Bidart - Poem Ending with a Sentence by Heath Ledger

Each grinding flattened American vowel smashed to

centerlessness, his glee that whatever long ago mutilated his

 

mouth, he has mastered to mutilate

 

you: the Joker's voice, so unlike

the bruised, withheld, wounded voice of Ennis Del Mar.

 

Once I have the voice

 

that's

the line

 

and at

 

the end 

of the line

 

is a hook

 

and attached

to that

 

is the soul.