I once caught a beagle, a stray.
Long tongue,
worldly eyes.
The kind that make the ladies sigh.
I lured him to the yard
and shut the gate.
But he didn’t stay.
Before I got to my phone
he’d found a hole and
he was gone —
Where have you gone?
Maybe home.
Maybe on
to his next beagle date,
The kind that makes
the ladies
ask him why.
How wearisome your shallow ploys,
Your flattery, your noise
You think to pass for comment.
Have you no job? No self-respect?
Do you spend your time with eyes half-closed
And cut and paste
And think your time be well-spent?
What am I to you?
Digested food you slither through,
I see you, pale worm, eyes half closed
(If eyes you have) in the lightless tract
And hell-bent
To make your daily pennies back.
Well you’re the fool.
There’s no one here.
No one to click your trickster links.
No one to make you clever as you think
you are.
No one to render time you waste to
Time well-spent.
