Razed
‘Raised to the ground,’ I’d heard
A Zen koan perhaps, as one hand clapping.
McArdle would put his arms around me,
His sweat, pungent as he lifted me on a bum-shined board
that straddled the arms of a perished puce barber’s chair
A white sheet tied around my neck
like a surplice, a choirboy in St Donard’s,
“Short, back and sides, no oil please,”
(My granny said it made your grow too fast)
I’d give him a tanner and a three D bit
Hot from the palm of my hand
Later, I was lifted on to the glass counter
of McAdams’ chemist shop
My right boot removed, I stared at the blood-clotted sock
As though it belonged to someone else, then across to where my mother fell as she fainted.
Maybe it was shock, that detached me from pain,
But I like to think that part of me knew I was being raised,
That none of this mattered.
raze Look up raze at Dictionary.com
1547, alteration of racen “pull or knock down” (a building or town), from earlier rasen (14c.) “to scratch, slash, scrape, erase,” from O.Fr. raser “to scrape, shave,” from M.L. rasare, frequentative of L. radere (pp. rasus) “to scrape, shave,” perhaps from PIE *razd- (cf. L. rastrum “rake”), possible extended form of PIE base *red- “to scrape, scratch, gnaw” (see rodent).
raise (v.) Look up raise at Dictionary.com
c.1200, from O.N. reisa “to raise,” from P.Gmc. *raizjan (cf. Goth. ur-raisjan, O.E. ræran “to rear,” see rear (v.)), causative of base *ris- “to rise” (see rise). At first sharing many senses with native rear (v.). Used in most of the varied modern senses since M.E.; some later evolutions include “to bring up” (a child), 1744; “to elevate” (the consciousness), 1970. The noun is first recorded 1500 in sense of “a levy;” meaning “increase in amount or value” is from 1728, specific sense in poker is from 1821. Meaning “increase in salary or wages” is from 1898, chiefly Amer.Eng. (British preferring rise).
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