Room 24

here's the world in an old black spoon
a broken brassiere and a saffron moon
singing springs ( in
                        a humbug bed)
sticky fingers ( and
                       a workin' head)
a 5-cent dropper a jive asp ike
a loop
       de
          loop baby with lines what slike
an ole greek broad (sans the leaf)
kine what didn't caws no phidias grief
the fronts and the backs (zall swEEt meet)
'daddy, get the outfit,
            mamma's
                        2
                        beat'

(previously published in the Evergreen Review)