Cant
for Thomas Green Bethune
Thar he blows! Plus, tusks
crushed into grins, grins
host to, guest of, impish
Nature, her fort/da “jewels”
glassified behind blank
opposable pupils—Ahabit perfected
(“perhaps memory”) by/for the dicey
Veil. Auto-didact/-dialectics
staged in rent-to-rent
“crowded houses,” asea to har-har-
poon Terrible Tom’s tom-tom
stutter—VAC C . Gone
but for “language, music,
imitation and perhaps memory.”
Owns no umbrella to forget to splay
open like a bucket. Can’t cast
down, can’t go singin’ in
the there.
Copyright Credit: Tyrone Williams, “Cant” from On Spec. Copyright © 2007 by Tyrone Williams. Reprinted by permission of Omnidawn Publishing.
Source: On Spec (Omnidawn Publishing, 2007)