I try out for Can Can after school
knowing I’m not cut out for the high kicks
Ballads chansons show tunes ok
I can belt out Judy Garland and all the songs from Oliver
“Who Will Buy”/”As Long as He Needs Me”
Wher-e-e-e-ere is love

Showcase with Gordon Boyd is the highlight of my week
“Ne me quitte pas” on a living room set
with ikebana and lacquer
If I were a rich man
doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
all day long I’d doodle doodle do

Bounce my ball against the wall
hula hoop until the midday movie
synchronised swimming extravaganzas
Glynis Johns playing teenagers into her 30s
Maid Jean and Mary Tudor
(spoiler: the New World inset is whole cloth)

Suck it up and sing along
that violin racket noone wants to hear
it was the times fucking us up
(that’s what they say now)
rape was par for the course
I used to believe it

Aphasia hides my words
gives them back in a different order
dooryard’s unidiomatic (keep it that way)
once the counting starts it keeps going
try telling not telling
what cannot be expunged take it from me

A scene from Softly Softly
jittery parkland setting
a girl naked in high grass
a low roar in the socket of branches
there’s a trick to existing do not flicker
set myself on fire burn it down