Homage à Lawrence Durrell

 

mdmorrissey, 1987 (http://www.mdmorrissey.info/durrell ).  Please distribute widely (thanks!).

 

Here's a ditty

To a smitty

 

Teller, tinker

Indian inkler

 

Irish genie

English meany

 

Ice in a hot wind.

Nile and blue Algonquin

 

Sing in Greek to Aphrodite

Potawatomi to me.

 

Muezzin, give an Indo-European hoot

Lo, the alphabet's back in my soup.

 

(I think of Mnemidis, who ate letters,

Swallowed a watch, and knifed his betters.)

 

Hail fuller, swager, maker of new

May your pound resound and your bang ring true.

 

May your words be mine, or for the dustbin,

Laughing-stock, Love's husband.