James Niles

There he was in what passed for dirty clothes,
the lamplighter poem blasting from a mouth full
of rock candy mountains He carried the lantern alight
in the light of day for journeys so long that they were
measured by years light as the dawn

Tramping treading traipsing to and fro from
one end of the fairy freight train to t’other
dogs had gathered-a cataract of dogs- to match
his own lighted burning being, so light as to be
unbearable in the heat of the sultry Sinbad stroll

A baggy loin cloth biliously bulged, bunched and
burnished in the age of bronze to a caramel with
marshmallow folds Ah a barrel from Daniel for
the night the lamps alight and a game of Solitaire
what, a stiffy–a Solitairy stiffy a woody a stiffy, how nifty

There she was in what passed for a birthday suit
the killing me softly song lilting on the air her tongue
touching tingling tasting an all day all night, Mary Ann
in this heat the dogs were smiling tongues lolling dripping
towards the night alight unbearably bright and oh so Amen