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Overloading the Machine

With a Wink While I Dream

Two stamps, three bills
my story doesn't fit
like a glove left behind
              on the bus
wary of the last guy
at the last stop, still
angry fist with bell

thumb at Brighton ski shop
filled with bikes on sale
much weather, fewer words
              "We need to get serious
              about measurement."
dripping...
              "You are not fat."
still I don't care
what we get from there
just how we order
              for me—
I finger the heart
splat in the dust
separately wonder
about the soft wine sweater—
              "What if it spills?"

"...The name of the song is called 'Haddocks' Eyes'!" "Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?" Alice said, trying to feel interested. "No, you don't understand," the Knight said, looking a little vexed. "That's what the name is called. The name really is, 'The Aged Aged Man.'" "Then I ought to have said "That's what the song is called'?" Alice corrected herself. "No, you oughtn't: that's quite another thing! The song is called 'Ways and Means': but that's only what it is called you know!" "Well, what is the song then?" said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered. "I was coming to that," the Knight said. "The song really is "A-sitting on a Gate": and the tune's my own invention."

-- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"

This page was last modified on 2011 December 20. "With a Wink While I Dream" by John Sullivan is Copyright ©2003 - 2011, and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.