All-Night Lingo Tango

Ode on the Letter M

Ode on the Letter M Midway through the alphabet, you are the tailored seam that ties Adam to zephyr,atom to uranium, sword that takes up a new God, little lamb, turns him into a flame-spewingVisigoth, and Byzantium becomes Constantinople, the new Jerusalem, hallelujah, bombs away. Or are you the flim-flam man working small towns in Mississippi—Troy, Denham, Tishomingo,Yazoo City—hawking a serum that will cure everything—warts, impetigo, ringworm— fade wrinkles, spark a wilting libido. Oh, yes, ma’am, dose your husband, and that rooster will crow again, thrum like a well-tuned violin.A masterful scam it was until the day that pretty little schoolmarm purred like a pussycat, locked you in her maximum security prison with gold rings—aluminum siding your new game, the highway nothing but a dream of freedom, because one letter can change grin to grim, plug to plum, slut to slum, a few blankets and wampum can get you Manhattan, itself once NewAmsterdam, because sometimes we seem to be a quorum of idiots on a plague ship in a sea of phlegm and fog, rumors of disease flying like crows in the scum of clouds heavy with hurricanes. Or the bride and groom in black and white, God bless their littleVietnam, here’s hoping for years of pound cake and hymns.There’s a charm in myopia, witness Monet’s chrysanthemum, a blob of pink and blue, his lilies smears of thick cream 74 on green. I take off my glasses when I can, though I’m as lost as anyone, searching for the perfect dim sum restaurant, locked in my high gothic scriptorium, scratching for words as rats scratch for cheese—Muenster, Edam, Livarot—for there are worlds in worlds—Mozart’s requiem the dark river Figaro sails on or TheTin Drum spawned by the SS.Who can guess the mysteries that cram our brains? Not I, said the little black cat. Fie, fie, foe, fum, I smell the blood of everyone. Like Robert Mitchum in Cape Fear, the ghouls are out, ripping the flesh off prom queens and popcorn girls, and as the storm clouds swarm like killer bees, I’ll be searching for myTinyTim, om mani padme om,God bless us, every worm. 75 ...