Question
i. m. robert lax
What would you do
If you happened on a woman
who whistled all too wildly
in her father’s house
Met up with a hen who crowed
as stridently as a cock, convinced
she made the sun rise
Dropped in on a man who spends
all his time looking long and ardently
into the mirror
_
Would you, as sometimes the old
stories go
one: cast a spell on her hearing,
and banish her to the kingdom
of below
two: kill the hen and prepare the pot
three: strike the man blind, and send
him in search of a cage
_
I would
three: tell the man to look behind
the mirror, and open his eyes
two: arrange for the hen and the cock
to get together on a moonlit night
one: whistle a happy tune, and make
a date with the woman for as much
laughter as we could bear
and I would learn the language of birds
Michael Harlow