Sluggo Poem by Don Tiedemann

the sun pulls a kilroy
over the trees in the east.
sluggo wakes a lonely boy
in his dumpster house

in need of a wash and pictures
his wirehaired nancy whose
aunt fritzi thinks that he
should entertain himself

which in the deep night he
does. nancy is his dream
night and day and he
shaves only under his hat.

sluggo has no school
and awakens when he will.
aunt fritzi says that work
is what must make his days

but only full beards can work
so sluggo schemes and the end
of each is comedy.

-----

through windows sluggo sees
his wire-haired Nancy and
her tube legs and prairie-flat
chest. and the moon is always

crescent and homeward it
shines on his trash-filled yard.
and he lies supine upon
a mothy blanket one

knee up one leg is crossed.
the land is amused by those
with love and nothing else
those with no wheels no way

no beard and no endeavor.
that fail ever in the light
with fritzi watching and
claiming all foreknowledge.

-----

sluggo has no social.
he eats chili from hubcaps
and drinks water tanging iron.
nor goes he calling shod

as he is with mud on feet
of cheese. a caliban
in love nor boy nor man
as free as a glass of water

empty as an egg shell
a party of none.

-----

sluggo breathes in the black
dots of his nancys eyes.
his world is sidewalks and
bus stops - wherever nancys

are and fritzis not.
his sky is only blue.
winter lasts a single, coatless
day. in autumn one

leaf falls. the two of them
remain no taller than
a hydrant.