Whether it's bullet, a clock, or a mean knife-blade, nevertheless what the man carries is an absence.

What is not in him
takes the place of a bullet;
the metallic nature of lead,
the same compact texture.

What is not in him
is like a clock
ticking in its cage,
without weariness,
without leisure.

What is not in him 
is here like the jealous
presence of a knife,
of some fresh knife.

That is why the best
of the symbols used here
is the mean knife-blade:
because none of the others suggests
such an eager absence
as the image of the knife does,
a knife that is all blade,

none indicates better
that ravenous absence
as the image of a knife
shrunk to a mouth,

the image of knife
completely given over to the 
hunger for whatever
is felt on knives...