Midway through the alphabet, you are the tailored seam
that ties Adam to zephyr, atom to uranium,
sword that takes up a new God, little lamb, turns him
into a flame spewing Visigoth, and Byzantium
becomes Constantinople, the new Jerusalem,
hallelujah, bombs away. Or are you the flim-flam
man working small towns in Mississippi—Troy, Denham,
Tishomingo, Yazoo City—hawking a serum
that will cure everything—warts, impetigo, ringworm—
fade wrinkles, spark a wilting libido. Oh, yes, ma'am,
dose your husband, and that rooster will crow again, thrum
like a well-tuned violin. A masterful scam
it was until the day that pretty little schoolmarm
purred like a pussy cat, locked you in her maximum
security prison with gold rings—aluminum
siding your new game, the highway nothing but a dream
of freedom, because one letter can change grin to grim,
plug to plum, slut to slum, a few blankets and wampum
can get you Manhattan, itself once New Amsterdam,
because sometimes we seem to be a quorum
of idiots on a plague ship in a sea of phlegm
and fog, rumors of disease flying like crows in the scum
of clouds heavy with hurricanes. Or the bride and groom
in black and white, God bless their little Vietnam,
here's hoping for years of pound cake and hymns. There's a charm
in myopia, witness Monet's chrysanthemum,
a blob of pink and blue, his lilies smears of thick cream
on green. I take off my glasses when I can, though I'm
as lost as anyone, searching for the perfect dim sum
restaurant, locked in my high gothic scriptorium,
scratching for words as rats scratch for cheese—Muenster, Edam,
Livarot—for there are worlds in worlds—Mozart's requiem
the dark river Figaro sails on or The Tin Drum
spawned by the SS. Who can guess the mysteries that cram
our brains? Not I, said the little black cat. Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of everyone. Like Robert Mitchum
in Cape Fear, the ghouls are out, ripping the flesh off prom
queens and popcorn girls, and as the storm clouds swarm
like killer bees, I'll be searching for my Tiny Tim,
om mani padme om, God bless us, every worm.