SYNDICATION

Lassoed by one of those syndicated afternoons.

If you want to get poetic about it, I was bound,

gagged and leashed by the soft light of Cheers,

Sam, Woody and the gang playing a game

of Twenty Questions with me Abu Ghraib-style.

Mostly, I wore boxers, through which

I attended to dry skin. After Seinfeld,

Law & Order. I could go on.


During the commercials I hear a night court of mice

in the walls, scratching and alive; gavels clap

as they conduct awful trials in camera.