One Thousand Things Worth Knowing by Paul Muldoon

Author:Paul Muldoon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374713645
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

NEAR THE GRACE OF GOD NAIL SALON

In the slave castle at Cape Coast

I saw slaves pushed from pillar to whipping post

on their way out of Ghana

by the Door of No Return.

I suppose any plain-backed pipit might learn

to sound the vox humana

from its organ reed, given how a woman may take wing

above an open sewer and sing,

making not only her own spirits quicken

but gladdening the heart of a boy who trots in her wake.

She glances back to where the boy (her son?) makes

like that mangy chicken

shooting its cuffs because its suit’s so hot.

It being noon, she hasn’t much of a shot

at casting a shadow,

even though she carries home

a mess of fish in a basket set on a blue latex foam

mattress pad no

self-respecting fish would be seen dead on.

Near the Grace of God Nail Salon

she pauses to take the basket

from her head,

as though to ponder if she might choose, instead

of a fish-shaped casket,

a casket in the shape of a beer bottle or speedboat.

The mangy chicken, plus a mangy goat,

chime in with the plain-backed pipit

to celebrate her setting the basket back atop

her head as she draws level with the Vote for Jesus Wig Shop.

If there’s a balance now I’m inclined to tip it

in favor of the boy who comes back double quick

to seize my wrist despite its being slick

with suntan lotion.

After his recent brush with mange

he, too, is able to rearrange

himself with almost as little commotion—

with almost as little to-do—

as the military coup

that ousted Kwame Nkrumah.

Now I see that his entire outfit, from his football shirt

to his sneakers shining in the dirt,

comes courtesy of Puma.

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